Assam teacher ‘pushed' into Bangladesh returns home two weeks after being detained

Scroll.in

07-06-2025

Assam teacher Khairul Islam, who had been 'pushed' into Bangladesh on May 27 after picked by state border police, has returned to his ancestral home in Morigaon. His family told Scroll that he had reached home on Thursday evening.
'I pray that Muslims in Assam can remain in peace,' Islam told Scroll from his home at Khandapukhuri village on Eid.
As Scroll had reported, the 51-year-old former government teacher had been detained his home on the night of May 23 by the border police and forced out of Indian territory along the Bangladesh border four days later along with 13 others who were claimed to be 'infiltrators'.
In a video posted on Facebook a Bangladeshi journalist from Bangladesh's Rangpur division on May 27, Khairul Islam Islam could standing in a field between Assam's South Salamar district and Bangladesh's Kurigram district
'I told the Assam police that I am a teacher and asked them to respect me,' Islam had told the journalist. 'My hands were tied like I was a thief and I was made to sit in the bus. Around 4 am, I reached here.'
Until December, Islam had been a teacher in a government school.
In 2016, he had been declared a foreigner by a tribunal. Two years later, the Gauhati High Court upheld the tribunal's decision. Islam spent two years in Assam's Matia detention centre and was released on bail in August 2020.
The appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court's decision is pending.
On Saturday, he described his ordeal to Scroll.
'I was taken by the police and the same police brought me home,' he said.
On May 23, the Morigaon police to the office of the superintendent of police. He was then moved to the Matia detention camp, Islam said. A few days later, the Border Security Force took him from the camp and released him the no-man's land between India and Bangladesh.
'I spent two days in the no man's land,' Islam said.
The group was eventually taken to a camp of the Bangladesh Border Guard. he said.
'A few days later, the BGB brought seven of us in the border from where the police took me in custody,' Islam said. 'I was in Assam police custody since we crossed the border from Bangladesh to India and they released me on Thursday evening.'
He added: 'I don't exactly remember how many days we were in Bangladesh...maybe three days,' he said. 'There was no sleep on our eyes during those days. How don't know how we spent those days. I don't even remember. Days and nights were same.'
Islam alleged that he had been beaten in Matia camp when he refused to get into a bus that he knew was heading for the border.
'…I'm an Indian so why would I go to Bangladesh?' he said. 'When I told them that, they hit me inside the Matia Detention camp.'
After Islam was picked up, his family had filed an application before the Morigaon superintendent of police seeking his release, attaching all the relevant documents.
'The SP had assured that he would be back within two-four days,' Islam's wife Rita Khanam said.
Islam's family is happy that he is home on Eid but Islam said no other Indian should face the ordeal he had been put through.
'I'm saying that an Indian should not be harassed like this and sent to no man's land by their own country like this,' Islam said. 'We are not Bangladeshi. We are swadesi. We have all the documents. They should check this and they should verify this before doing such acts. This is injustice and there will be judgement for this one day.'
'Malik ekojn ase,' Islam said. The Almighty will give us justice.