Two years after Assam evictions, hundreds of families wait for their promised land
- Mahmodul Hassan
- Sep 23, 2023
- 1 min read
“What does the government want? Does it want to kill us or save us? The government said that it would give us land. Years have passed, but we have nothing,” said 60-year-old Azirun Nesa, breaking down as she narrated her struggle. Hers is one of the nearly 700 Bengali-speaking Muslim families that were forcibly evicted by authorities at Dhalpur in Assam’s Darrang district on September 20 and 23, 2021. They were all promised land in return.
On the second day of the eviction, the situation turned tense and the police opened fire on the protesters, killing two villagers and injuring 20 others. A cameraperson with the district office was filmed stomping on the bullet-ridden, lifeless body of 33-year-old Moinal Haque, a disturbing image that shocked the nation.
The BJP-led Assam government forcibly cleared 607 hectares of khas mati (government land) in the riverine char areas in order to set up the Gorukhuti Multipurpose Agricultural Project, a government farming project. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said then that the project would be an “example of Assamese pride”. Two years later, the project appears to have failed and thousands of homeless people continue to languish in squalid temporary shelters.
Comments