Dhaka (Bangladesh): Sakina Begum, a 68-year-old woman from Assam, India, who had gone missing, is now being detained in Kashimpur Jail in Dhaka under The Control of Entry Act, 1952. She has been held for 53 days after allegedly being pushed into Bangladesh illegally from India.

Sakina Begum, a resident of Barkura village in Assam's Nalbari district, was taken into custody by the Assam Police from her home in May. She subsequently went missing for a long period, with her family unable to contact her. In the first week of June, she had been found by a helpful stranger by the roadside in Dhaka’s Mirpur Bhashantek area, but had been unable to contact her family.

Shelter in a strange land

Jakia Begum, a resident of the Bhashantek tin-shed area, is the person who found and sheltered Sakina. Jakia told The Wire that she found Sakina sitting by the road near a shop in front of her house four days before Eid-ul-Azha. Seeing the elderly woman in a somewhat ill and distressed condition, Jakia brought her home, provided her with medical care, and nursed her back to health.

After about 15 days, Jakia realised that Sakina was a resident of Assam in India. Faced with a language barrier and considering Sakina's age and health, Jakia, along with others from the tin-shed settlement, provided her with shelter for four months. They also tried to find a way to send Sakina back to Assam.

Their efforts led them to contact a BBC Bangla reporter. Based on information provided by Sakina, the reporter began a search in Assam and successfully located her family. After the BBC report spread on social media, the Bhashantek Police Station took Sakina into their custody. She was subsequently produced in court and charged with being in Bangladesh without a passport or visa.

Daughter's account: A long legal ordeal in India

Speaking to this correspondent, Sakina's daughter Rasia Begum revealed that her mother has been entangled in legal trouble in India for years, running from pillar to post to try and prove she is an Indian citizen. In May, the police took her mother to the police station for a signature and assured the family that she would be brought back home. Several days passed without her return. When the family contacted the police station, they were informed that Sakina was not there and had been taken to a detention centre in Matia.

Rasia said they searched for their missing mother for four months. She explained that a 2012 Foreigners’ Tribunal ruling had declared Sakina a foreign citizen. Belonging to an extremely poor family, they lacked adequate legal advice and exhausted all their resources fighting the legal case. From 2016, Sakina was held in the Kokrajhar detention centre. After being released on bail by a Supreme Court order in 2019, she was required to report regularly to the Nalbari police station. She last reported to the station on May 25 this year – after which her family was unable to trace her.

When the family could not find her anywhere, they called a helpline run by an Assam-based organisation and learned that Sakina Begum had been handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) sector headquarters in Panbari, Dhubri, near the Bangladesh border, on May 26. Around this time, the Assam government was actively advocating for a “push-back policy” – literally pushing people across the India-Bangladesh border when authorities suspected them of being undocumented immigrants. More than 1,000 people are believed to have been subjected to this, though the Indian government has not released any official data on it. Sakina too allegedly faced the same fate. When the BBC reached out to ask the BSF what happened to Sakina, they received no response.

Rasia was relieved when the BBC reporter, using details provided by Sakina, contacted her via a video call, confirming that her mother was alive. However, this relief was short-lived, as she discovered her mother had been illegally pushed into Bangladesh. While she was comforted that a stranger like Jakia was caring for her mother, she never imagined that after the news report, the police would take Sakina away and put her in jail.

Jakia's legal battle in Bangladesh

Jakia, a 40-year-old domestic worker living in Bhashantek, is now leading the legal fight for Sakina's release in Bangladesh. She described finding the disoriented woman and initially struggling to communicate, eventually using Google to verify that Assam was indeed in India.

After the BBC report was published, the police filed a case against Sakina on September 25 under The Control of Entry Act, 1952, for illegally entering Bangladesh without a passport and visa. The First Information Report (FIR) states that the police picked up Sakina from the entrance of an alley in the tin-shed area. Upon questioning, she stated her home was in Assam, India. Although she could speak some Bangla and her regional Assamese language, she could not produce a passport or visa. The police complaint further alleges that Sakina could not provide any information on how she entered Bangladesh or reached the Bhashantek area of Dhaka.

The investigation officer in the case, Sub-Inspector Sheikh Md. Ali Soni, produced Sakina in court and sought a court order to detain her in jail. After a hearing, the judge ordered that she be sent to prison.

Advocate Rahmatullah, who is handling Sakina's bail petitions on Jakia's behalf in a Dhaka court, stated, "I have applied for bail three times, but the court has rejected it each time, though it did accept a plea for medical treatment as per jail code. The latest hearing was on November 10, where the bail petition was rejected. We also applied for safe custody considering her age, but that was rejected."

For a domestic worker like Jakia, continuing this legal battle is difficult and expensive. Nevertheless, she is determined to see the case through, managing the costs with financial support from her community. Jakia wishes to keep Sakina in her own home until she can be repatriated to India.

An uncertain future

Sakina's future remains highly uncertain. Already embroiled in a legal battle over her citizenship in India, she now faces charges under Bangladeshi law for illegal entry. Her family in Assam has presented various documents, including an Aadhaar card and documents showing her father was an Assam voter, to prove her Indian citizenship. They argue that possessing such government documents would be impossible for a foreign national. Despite this, and the fact that Bangladesh is not accepting her as a citizen of the country, her journey back home seems fraught with obstacles.

This correspondent met Sakina at a Dhaka court on November 10. When asked how she was, Sakina looked around, dazed, as women police officers pulled her along. She kept looking towards Jakia, trying to say something. Shortly after, she was put into a prison van. Her only question to the reporter was about the well-being of her daughter.

Contacted for comment, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka told this correspondent, "We are not officially aware of this matter. Once we are officially informed, we will look into it."

Parvez Ahmad Rony is a journalist based in Dhaka, working with Drik.

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