Assam: AIUDF Leaders Slam Govt Over “Inhumane” Evictions, Allege Anti-Muslim Bias and Corruption

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) vice-president Aminul Islam and general secretary Rafiqul Islam have launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Assam government, accusing it of carrying out “discriminatory and inhumane” eviction drives targeting Muslim settlers under the pretext of clearing forest land and removing “doubtful citizens.”

Speaking at a press conference, the AIUDF leaders claimed that despite the Mission Basundhara land pattas scheme granting land rights to lakhs of people who submitted three-generation documents, Muslim families who fulfilled the same criteria have been systematically denied pattas.

“The government has full machinery to verify who is genuine and who isn’t, yet they brand people as ‘doubtful citizens’ and bulldoze their homes without due process. No other state in India uses the term ‘doubtful citizen to justify evictions,” Rafiqul Islam said.

The leaders pointed to the recent eviction drive in the Burhachapori wildlife sanctuary area, alleging widespread corruption. “If you pay money, your plot suddenly falls outside the forest boundary. If you don’t pay, it is shown inside the forest,” Aminul Islam charged. They claimed the Burhachapori area was proposed as a wildlife sanctuary in 2013–14 but was only notified in 2022, questioning why schools, hospitals and other government facilities were provided to the same “encroachers” over the years if they were illegal from the beginning.

“If elephants pass through an area, does the entire locality become forest land? By that logic, half of Assam would fall inside reserved forests,” they remarked.

The AIUDF leaders said hundreds of children have been forced out of school and families rendered homeless and jobless in the peak winter months of December–February, with many now living under tarpaulin sheets.

They accused the government of violating the Right to Education Act 2009 and demanded that non-bailable cases be registered against officials responsible. “The Gauhati High Court should take suo motu cognisance and stop this brutality. This is not eviction; this is making beggars out of entire families,” Raiqul Islam said.

The leaders claimed that both Congress (pre-independence and later) and the BJP have continued the same policy of evictions against the community. “Chief Minister must immediately stop these inhumane drives,” they demanded.

On the political front, Rafiqul Islam announced that AIUDF will contest around 35 assembly seats and is ready to forge a broader anti-BJP opposition alliance. He reiterated the party’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status for seven indigenous communities including the Kalita community, along with the existing six communities. “We are not with weak parties like Congress. All anti-BJP forces must unite to form one major power,” he said, while clarifying that AIUDF has no target of making a Muslim Chief Minister.

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