'You're Bangladeshi': 'Nationalist' Groups Target Miya Muslims, Give Ultimatum to Leave Upper Assam

Barpeta, Assam: Shahin Alam is a carpenter, a muazzin at a mosque and as well as a teacher at a maktab in Tinsukia district of Assam. He has been living in Lohari Kochari village, which is about 600 kilometre from his hometown in Silchar.

On August 10, a group of people arrived near his maktab and began questioning why he had opened it. The group threatened him, saying, “Toi iyar pora jaboi lagibo” (You must leave this place). He identified himself as the Muslim man wearing a Panjabi and skull cap in a Newz Now video, where a group was seen threatening him. 

“They asked me to show my Aadhaar card. When I showed it to them, they told me, ‘You are a proper Bangladeshi’,” Alam says.

Alam further adds, “After a while, the group came with a bulldozer and police and demolished the maktab.”

A media outlet circulated a video claiming that the small structure of the maktab had been demolished by an excavator. During the demolition, the video shows a group of youth chanting slogans such as “Jai Aai Axom” (Hail mother Assam) and “Bir Lachit Sena Zindabad.”

“People had been living peacefully here since I came to this place. This incident happened suddenly.” Alam tells The Wire.

Since the BJP government came to power in 2016, a sharp rise in eviction drives across Assam has displaced more than 15,000 families and killed at least eight persons, disproportionately affecting Miya Muslims – many of whom have lived in these areas for several decades. 

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly referred to the evicted families as “illegal Bangladeshis” in several posts on X. PTI reports that he urged not to give shelter to evicted people. 

According to India Hate Lab, Sarma’s statements have fuelled at least 18 incidents across 14 districts, including celebrations of forced evictions of Muslims, hate speech on social media, and public calls for further demolition of settlements belonging to “illegal immigrants.” Many of these events were organised or supported by BJP leaders and their affiliates.

Amid the evictions and rising hostility, Assam news channels have published videos showing vigilante groups going door to door in Upper Assam, threatening Miya Muslims to leave within 24 to 48 hours. 

In one clip by News Live,  Situ Barua, a member of the Jatiya Sangrami Sena, is seen warning a man from Hojai district: “Shut up, you Miya… Miyas have to vacate Upper Assam within 24 hours.” Another video by Newz Now shows vigilantes in Tinsukia district demanding NRC documents from a woman. 

According to a report by The Hindu, at least seven organisations in Sivasagar district have been conducting such exercises, going door to door to verify the documents of migrant workers and tenants.

Assam is divided into five regional zones – Upper Assam (eight districts, including Sivasagar), North Assam (four districts), Central Assam (six districts), Lower Assam (13 districts) and the Barak Valley (three districts). Muslims of Bengali origin residing in lower Assam, who have reclaimed the pejorative term once used for them – ‘Miya’ – and call themselves Miya Muslims. 

The Miya Muslims of Assam predominantly live in the flood-prone Char Chapori (river islands and embankments) areas, where thousands have lost their land to river erosion. Government data shows that since 1950, erosion along the Brahmaputra and its tributaries has consumed over 1.05 million acres of land – about 7.4% of Assam’s total geographic area. Many landless families – mostly Miya Muslims – have resettled on government land or migrated to different cities and other districts within Assam in search of livelihoods, only to now face mass evictions, police harassment and violence from nationalist groups.

Several groups, including 'indigenous Muslims', have openly spoken out against the Miyas. In one widely circulated video on social media, a Muslim woman from Upper Assam is seen urging people not to marry Miyas, claiming such unions would “destroy Assamese culture.”

On August 6, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma echoed similar rhetoric, saying, “We must stand firmly against attempts to destroy our culture and beliefs, but nobody should take the law into their own hands.” 

Such incidents have spread in several places across Upper Assam but there is no report on action taken by the authorities. Sivasagar OC Kalpajit Sarma tells The Wire, "We are taking action. But no FIR has been filed yet."

A student leader in one of Upper Assam districts said that Miya people from neighbouring districts have set up small businesses such as scrap shops and selling fish and vegetables in the area, while many also work as agricultural labourers. “They are being targeted primarily,” he said, adding that these families live in small, dilapidated rented rooms with whatever they can afford, often without adequate facilities.

A young story writer from Golaghat district, who chose to remain anonymous, said, “Assamese people want Miya labourers for construction and agricultural work because they are hardworking and serious about their jobs.” 

He added, “These vigilantes want to satisfy their ultra-nationalistic ego through Miya Kheda Andolons (movements to drive away the Miyas).”

The exercise carried out by alleged nationalist groups, including the All Tai Ahom Students’ Union, Jatiya Sangrami Sena and Bir Lachit Sena, has been strongly condemned by intellectuals, minority organisations and opposition parties.

Addressing the media on August 7,  renowned scholar and public intellectual Hiren Gohain expressed deep concern over growing incidents of mob violence and targeted harassment being carried out under the pretext of protecting indigenous rights.

“People are being beaten, threatened, and forced to leave. This is not the true spirit of khilonjiya (indigenous) identity. Such acts reflect a deep misunderstanding of what the term really stands for,” Gohain said. 

“The fight for indigenous rights is not unique to Assam – it’s a global phenomenon. But here, it is being twisted into a political tool to spread fear and hatred,” he added.

Narrating the socio-political neglect of the Char areas, which has led to large-scale internal displacement, Gohain further said, “The problem of migration did not begin with the present regime. This crisis dates back to the Congress era. However, I reject the BJP’s narrative of Congress appeasement. The neglect of regions like the Char Chapori – still lacking basic infrastructure like schools and health services – is a long-standing failure.

“People born into poor families who have been living in the state since before independence – without education and untouched by scientific and democratic concepts– thousands of working young men and women are now treated as enemies of the so-called Khilanjias.”

Speaking to The Wire, Ainuddin Ahmed, chief advisor of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), accused the chief minister of allowing so-called nationalist organisations in Upper Assam to take the law into their own hands. He said that no Indian citizen – living in Assam since March 25, 1971, the benchmark date for citizenship in the state – should be harassed in the name of being Bangladeshi, and that every Indian citizen has the right to live and work anywhere in the country. 

He added, “AAMSU will seek recourse to the law and the Constitution if the situation escalates further.”

The All BTC Minority Students' Union (ABMSU) leader Taison Hussain told The Wire that these incidents are a complete violation of the Supreme Court’s guidelines on mob violence, issued under writ petition (Civil) No. 754/2016. He alleged that the so-called “Miya Kheda andolons” are state-sponsored, which is why the administration has taken no action yet. “These incidents are not confined to Sivasagar alone,” he said. 

“In several districts, including Golaghat, Jorhat, and Tinsukia, not only Miya Muslims but also temporary Muslim vendors from UP and Bihar selling goods on the streets of Upper Assam districts have been targeted. This is simply Islamophobia.”

On August 7, former Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora alleged a complete breakdown of law and order in the state. Indicating the targeting of Miya Muslims in Upper Assam, he said: “These antisocial activities are taking place right under the government’s nose.”

On August 9, in a press meet, Raijor Dal chief and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi said that, in a letter (also posted on X) to Rantu Paniphukon, chief secretary of the Bir Lachit Sena, he accused the group’s member, Shringkhal Chaliha, of carrying out actions in Sivasagar that were “provocative and intended to incite communal tensions” – the very kind of activities the BJP and RSS are looking for. 

He also warned that door to door searches for “foreigners” by the vigilantes would disrupt communal harmony, criticised the BJP for failing to expel foreigners in nine years, and called pre-election evictions of Muslim households a political ploy. 

On August 8, locals in Sivasagar district held a public meeting over the escalating incidents. 

Jintu Mech, an organiser of the meeting, tells The Wire, “We deeply condemn the actions taken by the ultra-nationalist groups. It is entirely unconstitutional.” He alleged that these activities are being carried out under the guidance of the chief minister, as Sarma himself has acknowledged it. 

According to Mech, the Himanta government is projecting the Pomua Musalman (Miya Muslims) as “internal enemies.” He added, “Sivasagar is a place of harmony where even the meat from goats offered in Puja also goes to Muslim houses. Incidents like these are not acceptable. The administration is completely silent as if they do not know anything about it and have completely failed to maintain law and order.” 

“The government’s agenda is to distract people so they cannot ask basic questions. They are turning the ‘Swabhimani Axomiyas’ (dignified Assamese) – who were once poor but self-reliant – into people now waiting for beneficiary handouts of Rs 1,000-1,200.”

Referring to the resolutions of the public meeting, Akhil Gogoi said, “In our historical Sivasagar, if people from different districts whether it is Lower Assam or Barak Velly or directly from Bangladesh come and settle in government land, we won’t tolerate it.” 

He also mentioned that the public meeting demanded ST status for the six communities (Tai-Ahom, Matak, Moran, Chutia, Koch-Rajbanshi and Adivasi-tea tribes) along with Naths and Jogis. “Then their participation in parliamentary politics will be increased and ‘Axomiya jaati’ will be saved from the existential crisis.,” he added.

A person who was present at the meeting tells The Wire that the public meeting has called the homeowners to check tenants’ documents before renting out properties, in a bid to keep Upper Assam “free from illegal Bangladeshis.” 

He claimed that Miya migrant workers from Lower Assam resemble “Bangladeshi people” – because they wear lungis and tupis (skull caps) – sparking “anxiety” among “indigenous communities”, as people cannot identify who is a ‘Miya’ and who is a Bangladeshi. Forid Islam Hazarika, a resident of Sivasagar, says that many migrant workers had already left the district after vigilante groups began searching for Miyas.

A group of migrant workers from a Char village of Dhubri district are working at a government hospital construction site in Sonari, Charaideo district. They claim, "We are watching the incidents on social media. We are safe but still terrified."

“The situation may spread up to Tezpur also. That is why I am not leaving the place as many labourers are working under my supervision,” says another worker from Bheragaon Char in Barpeta district. 

Harassment of migrant workers in Upper Assam is not a new trend. In August 2024, a group of workers – Miya Muslims from Barpeta district – were allegedly assaulted and forced to leave their worksite by members of the All Assam Tai Ahom Students’ Union (AATASU), a student body of the Ahom community.

Amid these developments, reports claim that the government has moved to drop cases against pre-2015 non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Foreigners Tribunals. According to reports, the state’s Home and Political Department held a meeting on July 17 to discuss “issues related to Foreigners Tribunals with reference to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)” and the “dropping of cases of six specified communities (Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi and Jain communities).”

The meeting was convened following a directive from Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Following this many student outfits, including All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), opposed the action.  However, in a press meet on Thursday (August 7), Sarma denied the media reports. 

He said, “The state government has not issued any ‘special’ directive to drop cases of non-Muslim illegal foreigners adding that these people are protected under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.”

Kazi Sharowar Hussain (Kazi Neel) is a filmmaker, journalist and a poet from Barpeta, Assam. He currently heads Itamugur Community media- a media platform that amplifies the voices of the marginalised communities.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.