A migrant labourer from West Bengal was murdered in Maharashtra, while separate incidents of alleged police harassment and mob attacks targeting Bengali-speaking workers have been reported from Haryana and Tamil Nadu, sparking sharp political and social reactions.
The body of Abu Bakkar Mondal, 33, a mason from Narayanpur village in North 24-Parganas, was found dismembered and stuffed in a sack in a water body near Vasai in Maharashtra.
Mondal had been missing since the evening of 20 July. His mobile phone was unreachable, and his family filed a missing person’s report with Vasai police the next day. Police recovered his mutilated body from a swampy area on Wednesday, and following post-mortem procedures, transported the coffin to his hometown on Thursday night.
Grief-stricken relatives and neighbours gathered at his home, demanding justice and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators. “We want the culprits to be hanged,” said Shahanoor Gazi, the victim’s brother-in-law.
According to Maharashtra police sources, Mondal’s wife and a young man have been arrested in connection with the murder. Investigators suspect an extramarital relationship between the two and believe the murder was premeditated.
Meanwhile, in Haryana, two migrant workers alleged they were detained and mistreated by police who suspected them of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The workers – one from Chirang district in Assam and another from Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal – said they were picked up from a slum in Jharsa on the night of 18 July and taken to Sector 10A police station.
“They forced us to strip for verification. Despite repeatedly showing our ID cards, they kept calling us Bangladeshis,” one of the detained workers said. The two were later held for four days at a detention centre in Badshahpur before being released on 22 July. Police have denied the allegations, stating that identification checks were conducted lawfully and no one was forced to undress.
In a third incident, four Bengali-speaking construction workers from Murshidabad were allegedly assaulted in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, after being suspected of being illegal migrants. The victims — Sujan Sheikh and his brothers Milan, Sahil, and Babu — had arrived in Chennai three weeks ago for work. On 15 July, they were reportedly attacked with iron rods and sticks after speaking in Bengali. They have since returned to West Bengal and filed a police complaint.
A spate of incidents has drawn political attention. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee recently voiced concern over the treatment of Bengali migrant workers in other states. She revealed that the Haryana government had sent her a list of 52 workers suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals, prompting a stern response. With tensions simmering over identity-based targeting, migrant workers and human rights groups have called for immediate intervention to ensure safety and dignity for internal migrants across India.