Police have confirmed that they are not illegal immigrants

A mob allegedly made four persons undergo a ‘Bangladeshi test’ in Baksa district of Assam, and handed them over to the police after questioning their citizenship status.

The four, all Muslims, were returning from Guwahati to Suwagpur on September 13 in a pick-up truck with building materials. Some 50 local people allegedly stopped the vehicle at night and demanded proof of their inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC). When the four failed to give “convincing” replies, the mob handed them over to the Goreswar police station, 60 km north of Guwahati. The police identified them as Sahid Miya and his wife Bimala Begum of Baksa district, Lalbor Ali of Barpeta and Abdul Qayum of Morigaon.

H. Goswami, officer in charge of the station, said the people suspected them to be Bangladeshis. “Upon verification, we found that they were not illegal immigrants,” he said. There have been reports of mob questioning “suspected foreigners” in the districts of eastern Assam such as Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. Some NGOs in the neighbouring States have upped the ante against the NRC-excluded people believed to be sneaking in. In Meghalaya, over 230 people from Assam have been turned back at checkpoints or told to leave worksites.