Assam evictions spark row as Jamiat alleges communal targeting; CM reacts

Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Tuesday accused the Assam government of disproportionately targeting Muslim families in its eviction drives and urged CJI B R Gavai to take suo motu cognizance of what it described as an “unlawful and communal campaign”.

Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madani claimed that bulldozers were being deployed selectively against Muslim settlements, alleging that “more than 50,000 Muslim families” faced eviction.

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“It is not just Muslim homes being demolished — it is the Constitution and the rule of law that are being crushed in Assam,” Madani told members of the organisation’s working committee in Delhi.

His comments came days after the state government launched the second phase of evictions inside the Rengma Reserve Forest in Golaghat district, displacing nearly 230 families to clear encroached land.

Earlier in August, the first phase of the drive at Uriamghat along the Assam-Nagaland border had removed encroachments from about 9,000 bighas of land, affecting some 1,500 families. Officials insist the operations are part of a wider campaign to reclaim forest land, but rights groups argue that Bengali-origin Muslims, locally referred to as Miya, are disproportionately affected.

Reacting strongly, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma dismissed Madani’s remarks, saying, “Madani is nobody, and his reaction on the issue does not hold any value.” He further warned that the Assam government could initiate legal action if Madani “poked his nose into the affairs of the state.”

The BJP-led Sarma government has consistently defended the drives as “non-discriminatory” and essential to protect public land.

Sarma has also argued that evicted land would be repurposed for agriculture, conservation, or community projects. But organisations like the Jamiat contend that Muslims bear the brunt of such operations, while other groups face little scrutiny.

In its statement, the Jamiat expressed alarm over what it called the “rise of communalism, extremism, and religiously motivated discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims.” It also criticized what it described as a campaign against madrasas and mosques, despite the protections offered by the Places of Worship Act, 1991.

Calling the eviction operations part of a “planned campaign” to displace Muslims, Madani urged the judiciary to intervene. “In light of the recent campaign, under which nearly 50,000 families have been displaced solely on the basis of their religion, we call upon the Chief Justice of India to take suo motu notice and initiate legal action against all those involved,” he said.