India razes homes of 1,500 Bengali Muslims
Assam government carries out mass demolitions under forest encroachment claim, deepening fears of systematic targeting of Bengali-speaking Muslims
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Authorities in the northeastern state of Assam have carried out a large-scale demolition operation that forced more than 1,500 Bengali-speaking Muslim families from their homes.
Rights defenders describe it as another chapter in India’s widening campaign of state-backed displacement and persecution targeting Muslim communities.
The eviction drive — conducted on Saturday in Nagaon district — was carried out under a heavy security cordon as teams of officials and bulldozers moved into the Lutimari area, demolishing houses and structures belonging to families who say they had lived on the land for decades.
Local media reported that around 1,100 families dismantled their homes themselves after receiving pressure from authorities, while the remaining houses were destroyed using bulldozers.
Officials claimed the demolition was aimed at clearing alleged encroachments from 795 hectares of reserved forest, a justification widely used by the Assam government to defend demolition drives that disproportionately strike Bengali-origin Muslims, who have long been treated as outsiders despite generations of residence in the state.
Families were served eviction notices three months ago, but residents and activists say the process lacked due process and ignored humanitarian considerations, including the risk of mass homelessness during winter.
The state’s hardline Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a prominent figure within the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), publicly celebrated the demolition on social media, sharing footage of bulldozers razing homes — a move observers say underscores the political theatre surrounding such actions and the normalization of collective punishment against minorities.
Human rights groups have condemned the demolition drive as part of a broader pattern in Assam, where demolition campaigns have surged in recent years alongside citizenship disputes, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the construction of detention centers for those declared “foreigners.”
Activists argue the demolition policy has become an instrument to uproot Muslim communities and reshape demographic realities under the guise of law enforcement.
Earlier this month, another eviction operation in Goalpara district left 580 families homeless, the latest in a series of bulldozer-led actions that have turned low-income Muslim neighborhoods into recurring targets.
Advocacy groups warn that continuous displacement has pushed thousands into extreme precarity without relocation plans, rehabilitation funds, or legal recourse.
For the families in Nagaon who now sleep under open skies, the future remains uncertain — stripped of shelter, assets, and security, and facing the stark reality that their government views them not as citizens but as disposable.
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