New York-based international non-government organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday accused the BJP government of targeting Muslims for political gains and unlawfully forcing hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh by labelling them as illegal immigrants.

“India’s ruling BJP is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at HRW.

HRW, which conducts research and advocacy on human rights, demanded that Indian authorities stop unlawfully deporting people. Many of them are Indian citizens from states bordering Bangladesh, HRW said.

At least 1,500 Muslim men, women and children were deported to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15, including 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, HRW said, citing a Border Guard Bangladesh report. India has not given any official figures.

Most of those deported were marginalised migrant workers from BJP-ruled states like Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Rajasthan, HRW said, claiming that in some cases the border guards allegedly threatened and beat the detainees to force them to cross into Bangladesh without verifying their citizenship claims.

HRW quoted one Khairul Islam, 51, a former schoolteacher from Assam, on how, on May 26, Indian border officials forced him into Bangladesh along with 14 others. “The BSF officer beat me when I refused to cross the border into Bangladesh and fired rubber bullets four times in the air,” said Islam, who managed to return to India two weeks later.

Citing another instance, HRW said that the police barged into the house of a migrant worker in Mumbai, seized his phone and tore up his identity documents, including his citizenship proof.