The Government of Assam has continued its unabated campaign of bulldozers in the eastern state against what it calls “encroachers.”
According to an official press release the administration in Lakhimpur Assam on Tuesday began a massive eviction drive to clear around 500 hectares of “forest land”.
The Lakhimpur Superintendent of Police P B.M. Rajkhowa said that around 450 hectares of land would be freed from the encroachers.
B.M. Rajkhowa also claimed that the eviction drive is underway and going on peacefully.a
Videos from the spot, now viral on social media, show deployment of heavy security personnel in the area amid the usage of excavators and tractors for the eviction operation.
As many as three hundred families have been evicted from the area, most of whom are muslims.
The move has evoked widespread condemnation as many state that the campaign is targetted particularly at the Muslim minority in the eastern state.
Student activist, Safoora Zargar, booked under UAPA in 2020, tweeted a video denouncing the campaign and said, “The ‘mother of democracy’ dispossessing its own citizens.. 300 muslim houses bulldozed in Assam.”
The ‘mother of democracy’ dispossessing its own citizens.
300 muslim houses bulldozed in Assam. pic.twitter.com/xFNBHMrcKN— Safoora Zargar (@SafooraZargar) January 14, 2023
Another twitter user, Urban shrink wrote, “Muslims houses being bulldozed in Assam citing illegal encroachment. Constitutional democracy under BJP is just a sham!”
Houses of 300 Muslim families are being bulldozed in Assam, India, by Hindu right wing regime, branding them as illegal encroachers. pic.twitter.com/STKUWbtIHu
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) January 13, 2023
Professor Ashok Swain said, “Houses of 300 Muslim families are being bulldozed in Assam, India, by Hindu right wing regime, branding them as illegal encroachers.”
Twitter user, Faizan Ahmed wrote, ”
In Assam Lakhimpur in the name Jungle Encrochment More than 500 Housed has been Demolished and most of them were Bengali Speaking Muslims. It has bee also Alleged there is no action Against Homes belongs to Hindu Community. If this is Encroachment then Why only Muslim houses”
Meanwhile the Assam administration has said that they had issued notice three times to them (evicted families) and a public notice.
The Assam government has carried several demolition and eviction drives since Hemanta Biswa took power of the state after Bhartiya Janta gained power in the state assembly election in 2021.
Earlier on December 26, the district administration of Barpeta district of Assam carried out a massive eviction.