covert Anti-muslim campaign in assam india in the name illegal bengali

Defence affairs 

The latest killing of a Muslim man by police fire during an eviction drive in India's Assam on Thursday has once again put the spotlight on the state's Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's controversial stance on the Muslim issue. 

A former member of the Indian National Congress (INC), Sarma joined the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2015 and has been increasingly making news for his anti-Muslim views.

The Assam police, working in tandem with the state forest department, carried out an eviction operation in the Paikan Reserve Forest area in Goalpara district to evict residents who they deemed as “illegal infiltrators” from Bangladesh.

The police action killed at least one person, a Muslim man, reported Maktoob Media. Another person was critically injured while dozens more were hurt. The injured, according to local media, were rushed to a hospital in Guwahati for treatment.

Tensions escalated when the residents, the majority of them Bengali-speaking Muslims, resisted their forced removal.

The official reasoning by the state authorities suggests that they want to clear 140 hectares of forest land. But this has inevitably led to the displacement of 1,080 families, mostly Muslims of Bengali origin.

The evicted residents say they had been living in the area long before the area was declared a reserved forest. 

Recent actions and provocative statements of Sarma indicate that the removal of Bengali Muslims is part of a concerted effort to change the demography and gain sympathy of far-right Hindus. 

Sarma has had a political journey rife with accusations of being anti-Muslim.

He has repeatedly targeted Muslims in Assam, who are mostly of Bengali origin, accusing them of being “illegal infiltrators” from Bangladesh. “I will take sides. This is my ideology,” he said in August last year.

The claims, however, are disputed since the residents say they have been residing in Assam for generations.

Sarma's rhetoric, where he has at times blamed the Muslims for the inflated prices of vegetables and causing floods in the state, has led to various Assamese ethno-nationalist groups going door-to-door and threatening the Muslims.