Fearing torture and arrest, migrants from NCR hire buses to return home

Time of India

15 hours ago

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Malda: Two buses with about 100 migrant workers from the National Capital Region returned to South Dinajpur's Buniadpur on Monday after traversing a distance of more than 1,500 km over two days.
The passengers, who had arranged the private buses with their own money, said they had fled as they were afraid of being picked up by Delhi and Haryana cops on the suspicion of being Bangladeshis, tortured and forced to give up all their earnings to secure a release. Among them were several women who worked as domestic helps in Gurgaon.'s posh residential complexes.
Not all who made the return journey had faced detention in NCR, but each one had a story to tell of how "people dressed as cops" were picking up Bengali-speaking migrants at night, refusing to accept their IDs and demanding Rs 5-6 lakh for their release.
"We lived in Gurgaon for years with our families. We have all our documents to prove Indian citizenship. But we were still being being harassed by police and told to prove our identity. We were so scared that we hired a bus to return home," said Masud Karim, a resident of Rangapukur under Bangshihari police station
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Jakir Mollah, who had found employment in Delhi four years ago, said, "The cops are picking up anyone at night.
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They are not accepting any documents. Either one has to pay them money or be kicked, abused and then jailed. I did not want to end up in a police station and decided to return home with my family."
Getting off the bus, Mojlesh Mollah said, "No document is a valid identity for the cops (in NCR). The more you keep showing, the more they keep asking. One cannot live in a place with the constant fear of being picked up by cops." Their fear of being harassed and thrown in a lockup is not misplaced.
Junaid Alam of Gedrigach village under Goalpokhor police station of North Dinajpur was employed in a carpet factory in Panipat for the past two years.
A few days back, he claimed, he was picked up by police and taken to Panipat police station. There, he was interrogated on his citizenship and pressed to confess that he was a Bangladeshi. When he refused, Alam alleged, he was brutally beaten up. His sustained a fracture in his leg in the police assault and was hospitalised.
His family managed to bring him home last Thursday.
Two other youths from Goalpokhor, Sabir Alam and Md Kabir, also met the same fate. A resident of Bijuvita village, Sabir returned home with a broken leg on Saturday night. He had been working in a carpet factory in Panipat for 15 years. On July 29, police came to the factory and checked his Aadhaar and EPIC. The next day, cops came again and picked him up. For three days, he was tortured in custody and suffered a fracture in his leg.
"They kept insisting that I confess that I was a Bangladeshi," he claimed. Kabir from Solpara village, however, has still not been able to return home. A video in which he claims being tortured by Panipat police and appeals for help has reached his family. Both alleged that cops took away all their money. State minister Golam Rabbani visited their families and assured help.
Trinamool Congress in a statement on Monday said, "They were beaten, abused and extorted by Delhi Police, which allegedly demanded bribes of ₹5–7 lakh for their release. These are Indian citizens, targeted solely for their language and identity. This is a hate-driven crackdown on the Bengali identity, enabled and emboldened by the Bangla Birodhi BJP regime. Delhi Police has turned into a tool of linguistic apartheid, criminalising Bangla, vilifying Bengalis, and extorting helpless workers.
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