The incident, captured in tense and emotional visuals, showed family members weeping uncontrollably as their loved ones were forced onto a police bus. The atmosphere was charged with sorrow and anxiety, with a crowd gathering to witness the scene.
The detainees, one from each of the 28 families, were summoned to local police stations under the guise of signing documents before being taken to the transit camp in Goalpara district, about 50 km away. The Foreigner Tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies established under the Foreigners Act of 1946, had declared these Muslims as foreigners.
The Assam Home Department recently reported to the state Assembly that there are 1,19,570 D-voters in the state, with 54,411 declared as foreigners by the tribunals. Since 2017, 16 such individuals have been deported to Bangladesh. D-voters are barred from voting according to a 1997 order by the Election Commission.
The Foreigner Tribunals were set up to address issues of illegal migration, a major concern in Assam due to fears about preserving indigenous Assamese identity and culture.