BJP government demolishes dozens of Muslim homes in northeast India
Families say their houses were razed despite owning land, as minority groups accuse Assam authorities of continuing demolition drives disproportionately affecting Muslims
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Authorities in India’s northeastern Assam state have demolished 73 homes in Muslim-majority Goalpara district, leaving families without shelter even as residents say they legally owned the land on which their houses were built.
The demolition drive was carried out across several villages in the Krishnai area under Goalpara’s Matia revenue circle, with bulldozers and excavators deployed alongside a heavy police presence.
Authorities said the homes had been constructed on land officially classified for agricultural use without permission to convert it for residential purposes.
Residents and Muslim organizations, however, say many affected families possessed documents establishing ownership of the plots and were not occupying government land.
Their objection centers on the government’s decision to demolish homes because the privately owned land remained classified as agricultural.
The administration gave residents 24 hours to vacate and dismantle their homes before carrying out the demolition, according to local reports. Some families had been living in the area for years.
Goalpara District Commissioner Prodip Timung defended the action, saying authorities had no objection to people farming the land but that residential construction required approval.
Officials also said some construction had obstructed natural drainage and contributed to pressure on wetlands.
The North East Minority Student Union disputed the administration’s characterization of the families as encroachers.
Nurul Islam, the group’s executive president, said some Muslims in Goalpara had previously settled on government land after floods and river erosion destroyed their homes elsewhere, but said the families targeted in the latest drive were living on land they owned.
“The land was not government property. Their only issue was that the land was categorised as agricultural land,” Islam said, calling for compensation for those displaced.
The Muslim Students’ Union of Assam also accused authorities of disproportionately targeting Muslims, arguing that constructing a home on privately owned agricultural land should not result in families being rendered homeless.
The latest demolitions come amid a wider eviction campaign under Assam’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government that has repeatedly affected Muslim communities, particularly Bengali-speaking Muslims living in erosion-prone areas.
Goalpara was the site of a much larger operation in July 2025, when authorities demolished more than 1,000 homes in Ashudubi village, displacing predominantly poor Muslim families.
Rights and community groups subsequently accused the state government of using land and encroachment laws to uproot Muslims on a large scale.
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