Muslims detained, disappeared as BJP government targets citizenship in India

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Muslim families in India’s West Bengal state say relatives have been seized from their homes during midnight raids and detained as suspected Bangladeshis.

Some families say their relatives have effectively disappeared as the Hindu nationalist BJP government intensifies a citizenship crackdown that disproportionately targets Muslims.

At least nine Muslim men and two children have been picked up since June, mostly in Muslim-majority Murshidabad district, and sent to detention centers without first being given an opportunity to establish their Indian citizenship, according to an investigation by Scroll, an independent Indian news outlet. 

Families said police frequently arrived at night without producing warrants, arrest records or copies of criminal complaints.

Several detainees possessed voter cards, land records, government documents or other evidence their families say establishes longstanding ties to India. At least four had also cleared India’s recent Special Intensive Revision(SIR), an electoral-roll verification exercise ostensibly designed to determine voter eligibility.

One of them, 61-year-old Ibrahim Sheikh, was taken from his Murshidabad home around midnight on July 29 after men believed to be police officers demanded his documents and asked whether he was Indian or Bangladeshi.

His daughter-in-law Parbin Khatun said Sheikh showed his Aadhaar identity card and voter card but was taken away anyway.

His family later presented police with additional records, including pension papers and a land title, but said they were neither allowed to meet him nor told where he was being held.

“The police have just disappeared him,” Khatun said.

She alleged officers also made explicitly anti-Muslim remarks during raid, telling her that Hindus would be kept “close to our heart” while Muslims belonged “under our feet,” and that even Hindus arriving from Bangladesh could be made Indian.

Such allegations mirror concerns surrounding Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s approach to undocumented migration.

Adhikari said in May that suspected Bangladeshi “infiltrators” could be handed directly to Border Security Force for deportation rather than first being produced before courts, while explicitly exempting Hindu migrants eligible for citizenship under India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

India’s citizenship law provides a pathway for undocumented migrants belonging to six non-Muslim religious communities from neighboring Muslim-majority countries, including Bangladesh, but excludes Muslims.

In another case, 67-year-old Jalil Akhtar was taken while sleeping outside his home on June 19 despite appearing on electoral rolls following citizenship-related voter scrutiny.

Police records reviewed by Scroll show authorities completed deportation formalities and handed him to Border Security Force on July 4, but force returned him after Akhtar insisted he was Indian.

Police filed a case accusing him of illegally entering India only after failed deportation attempt. His family says it possesses land records dating back generations.

Abdul Jabbar was taken from another Murshidabad home along with his sons, aged eight and six. His family says he possesses an Indian passport, voter card and Indian birth certificate and had voted after clearing recent electoral verification.

Their whereabouts subsequently became uncertain, with Jabbar’s wife saying police told her they had been pushed into Bangladesh.

Human rights advocates say detaining people without judicial oversight or giving them an opportunity to establish citizenship violates constitutional protections.

“This is not a police state,” rights activist Kirity Roy said. “Detaining any person, treating them as a Bangladeshi, and pushing them back without any investigation is illegal.”

West Bengal police maintain detentions are being carried out under government guidelines and executive orders.

Families and lawyers, however, are challenging several cases in court as fears grow that Bengali-speaking Muslims could be stripped of basic legal protections under a citizenship drive that explicitly distinguishes between Muslim and non-Muslim migrants.