North Lakhimpur: Assam’s Lakhimpur district revenue department carried out a major eviction drive on Friday at Bogeenadi PGR under Kadam Revenue Circle.
Officials demolished houses and other structures, including a mosque, amid protests and distress among affected families.
A team of revenue officials, accompanied by a large contingent of security personnel, began the operation in Muslim Camp of Bogeenadi PGR in the morning. The area is near Bogeenadi Weekly Haat and Bogeenadi Police Station.
The drive targeted families who had been settled there by the district administration following the 1983 violence at Bhimpora-Bodhakora during the Assam Agitation.
One of those made homeless was 73-year-old Manik Ali, a local BJP leader. Friday’s eviction marked his second displacement in more than four decades.
“We were settled at Bhimpora village in the Bodhakora area of Lakhimpur district when mobs supporting the Assam Movement attacked us and ransacked our village in 1983. Following the violence, we were displaced and later settled by the government on this land near Bogeenadi Weekly Haat,” Manik said, recalling his family’s ordeal.
Manik is among 25 families displaced from Bhimpora during the 1983 violence. They were initially sheltered at Bogeenadi Police Station before the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Lakhimpur, allotted land to them. The Sub-Registrar, North Lakhimpur, issued them identity cards on June 17, 1983.
Another elderly resident, 70-year-old Mujibur Rahman, was also evicted on Friday, marking his second displacement.
“We were displaced from Bhimpora during the 1983 violence, where we had been sharecropping with members of the local Mising community. Initially, CRPF personnel picked us up and sheltered us inside Bogeenadi Police Station for six days. We then stayed at Bogeenadi Weekly Haat for another three months before the government settled us at Bogeenadi PGR and issued us identity cards. We have been living here ever since,” Rahman said.
For some elderly residents, Friday’s eviction marked their third displacement. Seventy-five-year-old Hanif Ali said his family had first migrated to Badulipara in the Bodhakora area in 1977 after losing their ancestral land in Barpeta to riverbank erosion. They were later displaced from Badulipara during the 1983 violence.
“I arrived at Badulipara in 1977 with my displaced parents from Barpeta after our ancestral land was lost to riverbank erosion. In 1983, we were displaced again by the violence during the Assam Movement, and now we are being displaced once more,” Hanif said, asserting his Indian citizenship.
Bogeenadi PGR had been designated as a settlement site for people displaced by the disturbances of 1983. According to residents, 25 families had been living in permanent structures there for more than four decades.
Government departments have used different names for the area, including Refugee Camp, Muslim Camp and Miyan Camp, in their records and documents. The area has a primary school, Bogeenadi PGR LP School, established in 2008 (DISE Code: 18120403909), and an Anganwadi centre under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), identified as Bogeenadi PGR Muslim Centre (Code No. 18307010123). A Piped Water Supply Scheme (PWSS) under the Jal Jeevan Mission has also been established at No. 2 Bogeenadi Miyan Camp. The households in the area are connected to the electricity network of the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL).
The eviction drive also led to the demolition of a mosque in Muslim Camp. According to documents cited by residents, the land, along with a cemetery, had been allotted for Muslim use by the competent authority in 1992.
Through Letter No. 704, dated September 25, 1992, the Special Officer and Secretary-cum-Manager of the Bogeenadi Agriculture and Farming Corporation, North Lakhimpur, allotted 4 bighas, 2 kathas and 10 lechas of Plot No. 5 of the PGR land for a mosque and cemetery exclusively for Muslims.
The eviction has led to allegations of selective targeting. Residents said adjoining areas of the PGR, also occupied by members of other communities, were not included in the operation.
“On either side of our camp, PGR land is occupied by non-Muslims. Why is the government targeting us, the Muslims, despite the fact that we voted for the ruling party MLA in the last election?” asked a woman holding her child.
“Assamese communities, Misings and others are also living on PGR land. Why have only Miyans been served eviction notices?” asked another elderly woman.
Several affected women opposed the operation and said they would not leave their homes. They asked the authorities to kill them rather than demolish their settlements.
The eviction also left several residents feeling betrayed by the ruling party. Manik Ali said he had been associated with Dhakuakhana MLA Naba Kumar Doley since his AGP days in 2011 and later with the BJP from 2016. He said his family had actively supported the ruling party.
“My son is the vice-president of the Lakhimpur district Minority Morcha of the BJP. I also campaigned for Lakhimpur MLA Manab Deka in our village during the last Assembly election. Yet, I am now being evicted by the same government,” Manik said. He still bears a scar on his back thigh from an arrow injury sustained during the 1983 violence.
The affected families appealed to the state government to arrange alternative rehabilitation, urging the authorities to consider their history of displacement and the government’s role in settling them at Bogeenadi PGR more than four decades ago.
The eviction operation reportedly cleared around 320 hectares of land at Bogeenadi PGR.