AAMSU slams ‘illegal pushbacks’ of Indian Muslims, demands Governor end detentions and mass evictions

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 2, 2025

The All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has accused Assam Police of carrying out “illegal and arbitrary detentions” of Indian Muslims and demanded that Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya immediately intervene to stop alleged pushbacks into Bangladesh and mass evictions of minority communities.

In a strongly worded memorandum submitted at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday, AAMSU claimed that Indian citizens—particularly Muslims—are being indiscriminately picked up by police under suspicion of being foreigners, often without any legal basis. “This sweeping crackdown is in clear violation of the constitutional and statutory safeguards specific to Assam,” the student body stated.

AAMSU cited Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which provides special legal provisions for Assam and has been upheld by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. The group also referred to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), conducted under Supreme Court supervision and finalized on August 31, 2019. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ 2019 directive, those excluded from the NRC are not to be detained until they exhaust all legal remedies and must retain access to civil rights, including education, employment, and property.

Despite these safeguards, AAMSU alleged that the police are re-arresting individuals already included in the final NRC, or still appealing, and even pushing some into no man’s land along the India-Bangladesh border. “This is not only a breach of due process—it is a human rights crisis,” the memorandum stated. The student union warned that such actions contradict both Indian government policy and Supreme Court rulings and that several such cases are now pending before the apex court and Gauhati High Court.

The group emphasized that only Foreigners Tribunals constituted under the Foreigners Act of 1946, are legally empowered to determine a person’s citizenship status. “The police have no authority to act as judge, jury, and enforcer,” AAMSU said.

The memorandum also condemned the ongoing forced evictions of minorities from settlements in districts like Goalpara, Dhubri, Nalbari, and Lakhimpur. Many of those being displaced, it said, are river erosion victims who have lived on unused government land for decades after losing ancestral homes to the Brahmaputra.

“These are not illegal settlers, but disaster survivors,” the union stated, adding that thousands of families have been rendered homeless without warning or due process. Elderly people, women, and children are now exposed to deadly heat and monsoon rains, with no access to clean water, shelter, or healthcare. AAMSU reported that a 60-year-old woman recently died in Goalpara under such conditions.

“These evictions and detentions together constitute systemic harassment and a brutal assault on the dignity and rights of vulnerable communities,” the memorandum asserted.

Calling the situation “urgent and alarming,” AAMSU urged the Governor to immediately halt unlawful detentions and forced pushbacks, ensure that legal processes are followed in determining citizenship, and direct the state to provide relief and rehabilitation for evicted families. The group demanded that constitutional protections be upheld for all citizens—regardless of religion, language, or identity.