The BJP-led government in Assam has evicted the 1,100 Muslim families in a demolition drive across Nagaon, Golaghat and Hojai districts.

Demolitions targeting marginalized communities, and Bengali Muslims in particular, have become routine in the state, and the latest drive comes against the backdrop of a targeted campaign against the community.

On Sunday, the second day of the operation, authorities razed the homes of over 600 Muslim families in the Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest in Nagaon district, claiming the families had encroached on forest land.

A day earlier, on Saturday, 547 families were evicted under tight security across the three districts: 336 in Nagaon, 152 in Hojai and 59 in Golaghat.

In Lutumari, the evicted families had lived for decades on more than 300 hectares of land inside the reserve forest.

Residents rejected the administration’s claim that they were encroachers, saying they had originally worked as labourers for the forest department and had been settled there by the government itself, Scroll reported.

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In June, the All India Union of Forest Working People had called on the Assam government to halt the planned eviction of villagers in the Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest. The union had argued that residents of four villages there were settled under the colonial-era taungya system of forest management and should not be treated as ordinary encroachers.

“We were settled by the government in 1974. We are originally from nearby Juria town but were settled by the government as our forefathers were landless. Altogether, 300 landless families were given four bighas of land each," the news website quotes Abdul Noor, a 44-year-old resident of Lutumari whose home was demolished on Sunday, as saying.

More than 10 mosques were also torn down during the drive, including some that had stood for over 50 years, according to Scroll.

Source: maktoobmedia.com