Two women from Assam, allegedly pushed by the security forces into the no-man’s land at the India-Bangladesh border, have returned home.

Shona Bhanu, 59, from Barpeta district returned home on Saturday night while Rahima Begum, 50, from Golaghat district returned on Friday, their family members told the media on Sunday.

Both are Bengali-origin Muslim women. They were summoned by the police in wake of the ongoing drive against those declared foreigners by the foreigners’ tribunals, a quasi judicial body that determines citizenship cases.

There has been no official reaction from the police or the Border Security Force on the development related to their alleged detention and pushback.

Shona Bhanu was among the 14 persons who were allegedly pushed into the no man’s land on May 27. She was summoned by Barpeta police on May 25 and was then taken to the Matia transit camp in Goalpara district.

The foreigners’ tribunal had declared her a foreigner in 2013, a decision upheld by Gauhati High Court in 2016. However, the Supreme Court stayed the high court’s
order in 2018.

Rahima Begum was picked up by the police from her residence at Padumoni in Sarupathar on May 25 and was taken to the Matia detention centre.

Rahima claimed that she was “pushed” across the Indian border with Bangladeshi currency on Wednesday but was intercepted by Bangladeshi border police and villagers and was asked to return to India.

She had to spend the day in the no-man’s land and was called by the security forces on Thursday. Rahima was then sent to Golaghat town from where her husband picked
her up.

According to her lawyer, the Jorhat Foreigners’ Tribunal had ruled in her favour last month.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa sarma had said on Friday that the state government was pushing back declared foreigners into Bangladesh in accordance with a Supreme court order to deport those declared foreigners. Around 49 persons have been pushed back in the last week of May.

Sarma had also said that 30,000 declared foreigners have “disappeared” over the years, which is why the government is intensifying efforts to detect them and take action as per law. They will be pushed back if they have not appealed against the order declaring them foreigners, he had said.

The Opposition AIUDF had on Wednesday registered their protest with Assam governor L.P. Acharya against the “continued harassment of Indian Muslims in Assam” under the pretext of identifying and apprehending “so-called illegal foreigners”.

Gauhati High Court on Thursday issued notice in connection with a writ petition on the “aribitrary” detention of two brothers from Assam’s Kamrup district.

The writ petition, filed by Torap Ali, has put the focus back on recent drives against suspected foreigners and their reported pushbacks into neighbouring Bangladesh.

On Friday, leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, wrote to external affairs minister S. Jaishankar expressing his concern over the state government’s “ongoing detention and forced pushback” of alleged illegal immigrants.