Fears of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have prompted illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to queue up at the Indo-Bangladesh border to go back.
“I heard they will not keep Bangladeshis. Modi won’t keep us here. He will send us to jail. We do not have documents. We did not try to get documents, as I do not have parents,” said Kohinoor Bibi, a 50-year-old widow waiting at the Hakimpur checkpost in North 24 Parganas district for the Border Security Force(BSF) to be sent back to Bangladesh along with others.
Kohinoor had come with her 18-year-old son to Dakhineshwar, on the outskirts of Kolkata, for medical treatment after developing diabetes and a damaged kidney.
“We were told that we would receive good treatment from government doctors, which is why we are here. Now we have been told that Bangladeshis would not be allowed to stay. Hence, we are going back. We heard that we would be put into jail for two years, and asked to pay a fine,” said Kohinoor’s 18-year-old son Alamin Gazi, who worked as a labourer in Dakhineshwar for the last 3 years and is now hoping to get work in his hometown of Shyamnagar in Bangladesh.
“We are living in fear of being put in jail; we are poor people. Why should we stay back?” said Gazi.
Suban Mollah is another illegal Bangladeshi immigrant who has been living in India for 5 years in Bangalore, Punjab, Delhi and Kolkata, working odd jobs. “I have Bangladeshi documents and no Indian documents. I have sinned by coming here illegally, and I will not do it again. I love my country, I do not know about SIR,” Mollah said.
60-year-old Rubia came to Chitpur in Kolkata two years ago after her husband‘s death and worked as a scrap dealer. “I am returning as they are not keeping Bangladeshi Muslims. After Sheikh Hasina fled from Bangladesh and came to India, I thought I could also come away here,” said Rubia.
Several such stories are emerging of illegal Bangladeshis being forced to go back after the SIR exercise was announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI). 12 states and union territories are undergoing the electoral revision exercise, including poll-bound West Bengal.
Montu Mondol, who is a local Indian resident living at Hakimpur check post at the bus stand and drives an auto rickshaw, says that as the process to complete SIR draws closer, more people are seen at the border.
“Before, there was no one at the check post, but ever since the SIR was announced on October 28th, people have been coming here as they fear they will be jailed if they do not cross the border now. Yesterday, a 3-year-old child fell ill waiting here, and we villagers gave the child food, tea and medicines,” said Mondol.
The BSF checks the documents of Bangladeshis and then sends them across the border. BSF and villagers together help with food and water. As the days go by, more and more Bangladeshis are racing against time to flee from the SIR fears lurking within India.