New Delhi: Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday accused Indian authorities of unlawfully expelling ethnic Bengali residents—mostly Muslims from West Bengal—into Bangladesh without providing basic due process, leaving dozens of families stranded along the contested “zero line” between the two countries.
HRW said actions by India’s Border Security Force (BSF), together with Bangladesh’s Border Guard (BGB) efforts to block those pushed across, had resulted in repeated incidents since June 1 in which groups were brought to the frontier at night and forced through gaps in the barbed-wire fence. Bangladeshi officials told HRW they had prevented 21 attempted pushbacks affecting more than 200 people, including children, from entering Bangladesh’s border districts.
“Indian authorities are cruelly dumping families into Bangladesh or leaving them stranded at the border, ignoring their basic human rights,” Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said. HRW called on New Delhi to halt forced expulsions, ensure procedural safeguards, coordinate with Bangladeshi authorities to verify citizenship, and stop discriminatory measures aimed at Muslims.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has defended his administration’s “detect, delete and deport” policy, saying hundreds identified as “Bangladeshi infiltrators” have been detained and nearly 5,000 people compelled to return. Indian officials say many Bangladeshis reside in India illegally and have offered voluntary return assistance to those willing to go back.
HRW said several interviewees alleged that border personnel sometimes stripped people of documents, money and belongings; the group stressed that repatriation must be genuinely voluntary and not coerced. Bangladesh has publicly stated it will not accept people pushed across the border outside legal procedures and that returns should follow established verification and repatriation channels.
Human Rights Watch pointed out that India is bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to protect rights and avoid deprivation of citizenship on discriminatory grounds.