India is facing sharp criticism from human rights organizations and legal experts after reports emerged that hundreds, possibly thousands, of Bengali-speaking Muslims have been deported to Bangladesh without trial. The campaign, which Indian authorities claim targets undocumented migrants, is being denounced as a deeply discriminatory and unlawful operation that has escalated in the wake of heightened national security tensions.

Officials from both New Delhi and Dhaka have confirmed the recent cross-border expulsions. While India maintains that those deported are foreigners residing illegally, civil liberties advocates counter that many of the individuals are in fact, Indian citizens, forcibly removed in violation of both domestic laws and international norms.

The crackdown is consistent with the Hindu nationalist government's longstanding posture toward immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's officials have frequently portrayed migrants from the country as "infiltrators" and "termites." Combined with a pattern of exclusionary policy-making, this rhetoric has intensified fears within India's estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among Bengali speakers.

"Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified," veteran rights advocate Harsh Mander told AFP. "You have thrown millions into this existential fear."

Tensions between India and Bangladesh have also worsened diplomatically. A 2024 uprising in Bangladesh overthrew a government friendly to New Delhi, straining bilateral ties. Since then, Bangladesh has repeatedly expressed concern over Indian actions near the shared border.

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Silent expulsions

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The current wave of deportations began shortly after the April 22 terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 Hindu pilgrims. Blaming Pakistan for the assault, India launched a sweeping security crackdown nationwide. In this environment, authorities detained thousands, many of whom were later expelled across the border into Bangladesh, frequently at gunpoint and under the cover of night.

Speaking to AFP, one of the victims, Rahima Begum from Assam, described being detained for several days before police forced her and five others to crawl through swampy terrain toward a village in Bangladesh. "They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you,'" she recalled. She later survived a violent encounter at the hands of Bangladeshi border guards and was quietly returned to Assam, on the condition that she remain silent.

Civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde condemned the deportations as blatantly unlawful, "You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them." He added that Indian law requires a clear and transparent legal process before any individual can be expelled.

Bangladeshi border authorities say more than 1,600 people have been pushed across since May, though Indian media reports suggest the number could be as high as 2,500. At least 100 individuals have been returned to India after Bangladeshi officials determined they were Indian citizens.

Stateless muslims

This is not the first time India has been accused of extrajudicial deportations. In recent years, the country faced international scrutiny for sending Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, sometimes abandoning them at sea. The current campaign appears to be concentrated in states governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and disproportionately affects poor, labor-class Muslims.

Assam's chief minister has confirmed the deportation of more than 300 people to Bangladesh. In Gujarat, police claim over 6,500 people have been detained, many of them Bengali-speaking Muslims. While some were later released, others, like construction worker Nazimuddin Mondal, were transported across the country and forcibly expelled. "The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians," said Mondal, who showed them his government-issued ID to no avail. He eventually made it back to West Bengal, but now says he is afraid to even go out and look for work.

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According to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and multiple UN bodies, India's treatment of Muslims has grown increasingly hostile under the Modi government. The 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which expedites citizenship for non-Muslim refugees, and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), which has already excluded millions in Assam, have stoked fears of widespread statelessness for Indian Muslims.

The Sachar Committee Report (2006) previously highlighted long-standing socio-economic marginalization among Muslims, and recent incidents, such as the 2020 Delhi riots and the segregation of Muslim neighborhoods, have only intensified the perception of systemic targeting.

"People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign," Mander told AFP.