‘Wasn’t sure I would return’: ‘Pushed into Bangladesh’ despite case in Supreme Court, Assam man is back home in time for Eid

Islam, a former government school primary teacher, had been declared a foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal in 2016. As reported by The Indian Express, his special leave petition against the FT order was granted by the Supreme Court in December 2024, despite which he was detained by police on May 23 as part of an ongoing crackdown against declared foreigners in Assam.

On May 27, a video uploaded on social media by a Bangladeshi journalist of Khairul Islam was the first indication that declared foreigners were being pushed across the International Border into the country.

In the video, which purportedly shown Islam in Bangladesh’s Kurigram district, he could be heard saying that on May 23, he was taken by the police from his home to the Matia transit camp – the dedicated detention centre to house “illegal foreigners” in Assam – and that he was put into a bus with his hands tied and pushed across the border with 13 others on May 27.

A few days later, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed that the government is pushing back declared foreigners, citing a February 4 Supreme Court order. However, Sarma also said that those with appeals pending before the Gauhati High Court or the Supreme Court “are not being troubled.”

“My wife had seen the video of me stuck in no-man’s land. At the same time, the CM also said that people with cases in the High Court and Supreme Court can’t be picked up. Because I have my Supreme Court case, she made an appeal to the border branch of the Superintendent of Police’s office and they assured her that they will try to bring me back in a few days. So that’s how I was brought back to Assam, and I came back to my home on Thursday night,” he said.

He recounted the day that the video of him was taken: “After the security forces took us to the border and pushed us into Bangladesh, there was nowhere for us to go. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) also pushed us away and sent us back to the zero line or the no-man’s land. That was where we were the whole day, under the sun in the paddy field. I was with 13 other people. When the media there wanted us to speak, I had to speak about our plight because the rest were unable to speak with clarity. After spending the whole day there, the BGB took us to their camp and gave us food to eat. I remember it was egg and dal. The next morning, we were taken to another camp and we spent the rest of the day there until, in the evening, seven of us were handed over back to the BSF,” he said.

Islam has been battling his citizenship case for a decade now and had spent two years in detention in Tezpur central jail after the Gauhati High Court had upheld the FT order in 2018.

“I have complete hope that I will be given justice by the Supreme Court when the time comes. For now, I am glad that I am with my family today,” he said.