North Dinajpur migrant worker Sabbir Alam returned home from Haryana’s Panipat on Saturday with two fractured legs and memories of torture that left him
disoriented.

Alam, who is now home at Bijubhita, a village under the Islampur sub-division of the district, had been working in a handloom factory in Panipat.

Around 10 days ago, he was picked up by cops on the suspicion that he was a Bangladeshi infiltrator, he said. Two policemen held his hands and legs while two others kept hitting his legs with sticks until he had fractures in both legs.

They wanted Alam, in his late 20s, to admit he was a Bangladeshi.

Recounting how the nightmare began, Alam said that cops reached the handloom factory and asked the manager to summon all Bengali-speaking migrant workers.

“I met the cops. They told me I would have to go to the police station with them to verify my Aadhaar card. They asked me to sit in a room and asked for my mother’s Aadhaar card. I got its picture via WhatsApp and showed it to them,” said Alam.

The cops took him to another room and asked whether he was a Bangladeshi, Alam said. “When I said I am an Indian from Bengal’s North Dinajpur, they started heckling me to confess I am from the neighbouring country. When I did not, the policemen got agitated,” he said.

“They forced me to lie down. Two of them held my limbs, two others went on hitting my legs with sticks,” he said.

“After some time, I was then dragged into a car and taken to another police station,” he said. “There, too, cops wanted a confession. When I refused, they tied my hands and beat me. They dropped hot water into my nostrils. I lost my senses,”
he added.

After this, Alam was detained for three days and then released.

“I was in acute pain but I just wanted to leave Panipat. Accompanied by my wife, I somehow took a train to reach home,” he said.

Alam filed a complaint against the Haryana police with Islampur police on Sunday. “Both my legs are broken, I am jobless and have no money. I don’t know how long it will take for me to recover. I have no idea how I will run my family,” he said.

“Still, I don’t dare to return to Panipat,” Alam added.

Alam is third Bengali-speaking migrant worker from North Dinajpur who ended up with broken legs because of police torture in Haryana.

“We have received his complaint and have initiated necessary proceedings,” said Jobi Thomas, the superintendent of police of the Islampur police district.

District Trinamool leaders met Alam. “Many migrant workers from our districts have faced torture by the Haryana police. We have extended all possible help to Sabbir Alam and hope he recovers in due course,” said Kanaialal Agarwala, the district Trinamool president.

Imran Ali Ramz, a former MLA and a Congress leader of the district, who is currently in Panipat, said Bengali migrant workers told him that that the cops were indiscriminately detaining them on suspicion of being Bangladeshis and torturing them. “We will meet the local SP on August 7,” he said over the phone.

On Tuesday, Ramz sent a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking the Bengal government delegation’s visit to Panipat to stand in support of migrant workers. “Such atrocities cannot go on,” said the Congress leader.

Kartick Chandra Paul, the BJP MP of Raiganj, claimed he had recently gone to Panipat and met migrant workers from North Dinajpur.

“I met the migrant workers of our district in Panipat. They are not facing any problem,” claimed the BJP MP.

“We believe these incidents of alleged police torture should be probed to confirm that those making such claims have actually faced such torment,” the MP added.