‘What was our fault? We are Indians': Rounded up in drive against Bangladeshis, Chandola lake residents recount 3am raid

Indian Express

28-04-2025

Locked houses, deserted streets and anxious residents peering from window grilles: An uneasy calm prevails in Chandola talav na chhapra, two days after 890 people, including 214 minors, were detained from here by the Ahmedabad City Police in a 3am raid as part of an exercise to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack last week.
Though 300 of the detainees were released on Monday, after their Indian identity was confirmed, the inhabitants of the slum area on the southern edge of Ahmedabad are a worried lot.
'It wasn't so bad even at the height of the Covid lockdown,' said a man from Madhya Pradesh who was released on Sunday after verification. 'My children were scared and traumatised for no fault of their own,' said the man who had sent his family away to a relative's place.
On Monday, Commissioner of Police GS Malik took a round through a section of this vast slum area located between the grouping of the three Chandola lakes, with hordes of television crews following him even as personnel from the power distribution company severed electricity lines.
Of 890 detainees, the Ahmedabad City Police on Monday evening said that it had confirmed 143 people as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, with 110 of them allegedly in possession of forged Indian identity documents.
DCP Ajit Rajian of the Crime Branch confirmed that 300 Indians had been released from detention with the caveat that all documents remained under suspicion. Meanwhile, 447 persons continued to be under investigation of which 270 allegedly don't have any documentation.
DCP Ajit Rajian of the Crime Branch confirmed that 300 Indians had been released from detention with the caveat that all documents remained under suspicion.
Even among the 300 persons who have been released from detention, not all came back home.
Pointing at the locked doors and abandoned by-lanes, some only wide enough for just one person to pass through, a resident said they had no idea of the number of people in detention, those who have been released, and those who have left the area out of fear of further action by the police.
'We had no sense of time, just humiliation. The police banged on doors with their lathis, people were pulled out of their homes and rounded up. They said they would let the women and children go but they herded them too. The police had a couple of buses and some people were sent in those, while most of us were paraded through the streets to the Crime Branch (headquarters),' said a man in his thirties, among those who were released on Sunday, as he recalled the events of Saturday morning.
The midnight police operation was termed by Minister of State, Home, Harsh Sanghavi who called it a 'a historic victory' while calling for 'ghuspatiye (infiltrators)' to be rooted out.
At the slum area that houses some 5,000 homes, a group of people is collecting documents to create not only a backup of legal data ready to be presented to the authorities, but also proof that Indian citizens were detained and paraded through the streets.
'We need to be prepared if such a thing happens again,' said a man at a desk being used to compile the documents. 'While some illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were detained last year and deported, such police action has never taken place on such a large scale, without differentiation of who is Indian and who is not. We also want the illegal immigrants to be removed but what was our fault? We are Indians,' he added.
Activists, meanwhile, are working to get Indian nationals released from detention. Advocate Shamshad Pathan told the Indian Express, 'There are not just people from Bengal there. There are Indian citizens from Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other states living in the area. We managed to cross-check and have got at least 12 Bihar residents released… We spoke to locals in their villages and sent the information to the police.'
Raising the issue on social media, Ritu Jaiswal, the State President of the Women's Wing of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, posted on X, '…some youths of Baya Panchayat of my constituency Parihar Vidhan Sabha, who had gone to Gujarat to support themselves and their families, have also been caught in this action…The Sarpanch of Baya Panchayat, while identifying these youths, has made it clear through his official letter that all of them are citizens of India and residents of the state of Bihar.'
Mujahid Nafees, the Convenor of the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), in a letter to Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay, called for the suspension of police officials involved in parading innocent people through the streets. The letter stated, '…More than a thousand people were cordoned off with police ropes on all sides and taken to Kankaria Ground in a procession like accused persons, and they were made to sit in the open on the ground in the blazing heat.'
The letter further stated, 'The Supreme Court guidelines prohibit the police from tying or taking out a procession of accused persons because it is clearly an act against human dignity. These people are ordinary working-class people who have not committed any crime. Taking out a procession in this manner is very insulting and against the law. Therefore, it is requested that you conduct a departmental inquiry against the police personnel who have disobeyed the SC order and punish them.'
Commissioner of Police GS Malik told The Indian Express, 'Till now, 143 people have been identified as Bangladeshis and several people identified as Indians have been released as well. We are still processing documents and questioning people, which is tedious work but our Crime Branch is doing an excellent job.'
When asked about the rounding up and parading of Indian citizens along with illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, he said, 'Legally speaking, everyone there has been staying in something that is illegally constructed, which amounts to land-grabbing. Legally, everyone is a land grabber there, it is encroachment.' He further said, 'And, we had no option because if we go there and start questioning house by house, they will lock the houses or run away. So, no right as such has been encroached upon. Further, we have taken care of them and given them food and water.'
Meanwhile, around 7 pm on Monday, local residents reported a number of bulldozers having been stationed outside the area. Fearing that a demolition exercise was in the offing, they went to Isanpur police station to ask for some time. The Indian Express attempted to reach out to Zone-6 DCP Ravi Mohan Saini but he remained unavailable for comment. Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DyMC) Riddhesh Raval, who heads the Estate Department, claimed he was ignorant of the entire matter.
Vadodara City police have screened a total of 1,700 'suspicious individuals' until Monday evening, a release from the Vadodara City Commissioner of Police said.
'Among them, the documents of 66 individuals are currently under verification. Preliminary inquiries revealed that several of these individuals claimed addresses near the Bangladesh border. To verify their claims and the authenticity of their documents, a team comprising a Police Inspector and officers of the Crime Branch and Special Operations Group (SOG) has been sent to West Bengal,' the release said.
During the crackdown, the police have confirmed nine suspects as being Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in Vadodara city.