‘Atrocious and terrible': TMC expresses shock at detention of Bengali-speaking workers in Gurugram
'This is atrocious and terrible,' the Trinamool Congress chief said on X. 'We are not going to tolerate this.'
On July 19, the police in Gurugram detained at least 74 migrant workers on the suspicion that they were from Bangladesh, The Wire reported. Of these, 11 were from West Bengal and 63 from Assam.
The workers have been detained at a municipal community centre in Gurugram's Sector 10A, Newslaundry reported.
Amid the crackdown, hundreds of migrant workers have reportedly fled Gurugram for fear of being detained.
Since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Bengali-speaking migrant workers have been rounded up by the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked to prove that they are Indian citizens. In some cases, individuals who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.
Banerjee on Thursday said she also received reports from other states like Rajasthan about West Bengal residents being 'pushed' into Bangladesh although they had official documentation.
'There are tortures and tortures on hapless poor Bengali workers from West Bengal in these States,' she said. '…Stop this linguistic terror.'
Have been increasingly receiving reports of detentions of and atrocities on our Bengali-speaking people from different districts of West Bengal in Gurgaon, Haryana. West Bengal police is receiving these reports from Haryana police in the name of requests for identity searches.…
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 24, 2025
In a similar vein, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra asked whether the Sector 10A community centre was being used as an illegal detention camp.
'This is illegal,' she asserted, 'This is like living in Nazi Germany, where the Jews were being completely terrorised and [were] living in constant fear of being picked up and put in camps.'
Moitra said that migrant workers could not be branded as Bangladeshis merely because they spoke in Bengali.
Attention! Migrant workers from Bengal being picked up illegally by @gurgaonpolice, is Sector 10 A community center an illegal detention camp? Maids, cooks, menial workers living in complete terror. #NaziGermany pic.twitter.com/uTaSQIK3s0
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) July 24, 2025
Commenting on the allegations, Gurugram Police Public Relations Officer Sandeep Kumar was quoted as saying by The Wire that the 'suspected immigrants' were being held as per government guidelines, and claiming that they were not being detained. However, he did not specify what the guidelines were.
'They are not detained,' Kumar was quoted as saying by the news portal. 'As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA], certain holding centres have been created, and suspected Bangladeshis are being kept there. All basic necessities, including medical facilities, are being provided to them at the centres.'
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