Bengali Muslim man disappears after being branded Bangladeshi in India
Family says 66-year-old Indian Muslim vanished from detention despite citizenship documents as Bengali Muslims face growing foreigner profiling
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A 66-year-old Bengali Muslim man has disappeared from official custody in eastern India after police allegedly branded him a Bangladeshi national, despite his family producing multiple Indian identity documents to establish that he was born and raised in the country.
Jalil Akhtar, from Baliamora village in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district, was taken from his home by police on June 19 and moved between detention facilities while his family fought efforts to allegedly push him across the border into Bangladesh, according to The Observer Post.
His disappearance has deepened concerns over the targeting of Bengali-speaking Muslims in India, where authorities have intensified operations against people suspected of being undocumented Bangladeshis.
Rights groups have warned that Indian Muslims have also been caught in such crackdowns and subjected to detention or expulsion without adequate opportunities to establish their citizenship.
Akhtar’s family said officers from Dalkhola police station detained him at night on suspicion that he was Bangladeshi.
When relatives went to the station the following morning, police allegedly told them he would be released if they produced documents proving his Indian identity.
The family presented his voter identification card, Aadhaar card, ration card and Permanent Account Number card but said he was not released.
Akhtar was instead transferred to Nizampur Holding Centre in Chakulia and was later allegedly taken to a facility in Fulbari, near Siliguri, where his family says preparations were underway to hand him to India’s Border Security Force for a possible expulsion to Bangladesh.
Local protests reportedly led authorities to return him to Nizampur.
Akhtar’s daughter, Kunsum Khatun, said she met her father there several days ago but subsequently discovered he was gone.
“We have heard from local residents that police took him somewhere in a vehicle,” she said. “We have not been given any information about where he has been taken.”
Khatun said her elderly father has diabetes and had endured months of harassment despite the family repeatedly presenting documents supporting his Indian identity.
His lawyer, Shahid Reza, said the investigating officer acknowledged during court proceedings that Akhtar’s voter and ration cards were authentic. A judge then ordered the officer to put that verification in writing, which Reza said was subsequently done.
The case comes amid growing scrutiny of India’s campaign against suspected Bangladeshi migrants, particularly Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Human Rights Watch reported in 2025 that authorities had expelled hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh without adequate due process, including some people who said they were Indian citizens.
Akhtar’s family has now approached authorities and the courts seeking to establish where he has been taken and secure his release, turning what began as a citizenship dispute into a more fundamental question over the whereabouts of an Indian Muslim who disappeared while under state control.
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