GUWAHATI: Assam’s BJP-led govt has accelerated the process of tracking down individuals declared illegal foreigners by Foreigners’ Tribunals and is pushing them back into the no-man’s land between India and Bangladesh.At least 49 such “declared foreign nationals” were pushed back from western and southern Assam on May 27 and 29, after which at least three petitioners have separately moved the Supreme Court and Gauhati HC seeking the whereabouts of their family members, suspected to have been pushed back, and a halt to the ongoing drive.Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that “30,000 people, after being declared foreign nationals by various tribunals over the years, have disappeared. We have decided to speed up the process of detecting them, which was paused when the NRC was being updated. The moment we get them, we have to take action and we are working as per law”.Sarma said that in coming days there would be a lot of push-backs, and added that a declared foreigner could appeal in HC or SC. “If one has not preferred an appeal in the higher court, his right to stay in India is forfeited. But if a declared foreigner can show that he has made an appeal, we are not disturbing him,” he said.“If judiciary has given a stay (on the tribunal order declaring them foreigners), we are respecting the judiciary and we have allowed such people to stay,” Sarma said.Sarma said that there were two types of illegals – people who have just come in and those who have been declared foreigners by tribunals.“The SC ordered (in Feb) that those declared foreigners and have not made any appeal should be sent back by any means. Only yesterday 35 Bangladeshis who came in a few days ago were detected near the border with Meghalaya, in Silchar, and were immediate pushed back,” he said.On Thursday, Gauhati HC issued notice to the state govt directing it to provide details of the whereabouts of two brothers who were declared foreigners by a tribunal and subsequently released on conditional bail. One Torap Ali, nephew of Abu Bakkar Siddik and Akbar Ali, claimed in his petition that his family apprehends both his uncles “may be in danger of being illegally pushed into Bangladesh”.The two were declared foreigners by a tribunal in 2017 and sent to a transit camp in Goalpara. They were released on bail in 2020 following an SC directive that those in detention for over two years may be released on bail. They were detained by police on May 24, the petitioner submitted, and claimed that the authorities have refused to give details of their whereabouts. The court has fixed the next hearing for June 4.Similarly, SC said on Friday it would hear on Monday a habeas corpus petition filed by a 26-year-old man stating that his mother, Monowara Bewa of Dhubri, also a declared foreigner, was detained by police on May 24 and since then her whereabouts were unknown.
