The government of Assam has forcibly removed the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali descent from approximately 1,157 acres of state-owned land in Dhubri district to facilitate a solar energy initiative, as confirmed by District Magistrate Dibakar Nath.

The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited is overseeing the project and has been granted the necessary land for its development, Nath stated.

Residents impacted by the demolitions reported that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who have resided in the area for three to four decades, were displaced from villages including Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block, and Santeshpur, all located within the Chapar revenue circle of Dhubri.

“These individuals have been affected by erosion and lost their ancestral homes to the Brahmaputra River,” shared Towfique Hussian, a resident impacted by the eviction.

On March 30, the district administration proposed to repurpose Village Grazing Land, a type of government land meant for cattle grazing, for the solar project, as noted in the minutes from a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.

The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited has acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the solar facility.

The district administration indicated that eviction notices were issued in advance, along with daily public announcements urging residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before the deadline on Sunday.

On Monday, police and bulldozers began arriving at the sites designated for eviction.

“Many residents have already started moving their belongings out of fear… People were relocating daily,” Hussian noted. “Those who did not leave earlier saw their homes demolished on Tuesday.”

Some residents protested against the eviction, throwing stones at the bulldozers, which resulted in damage to three of the vehicles. In response, police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.

Akhil Gogoi, an independent MLA and leader of Raijor Dal, visited the eviction site on Tuesday. He assured the displaced individuals that he would appeal to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for the allocation of 165 acres for their resettlement.

Gogoi was briefly detained by police during the incident.

“This eviction is both illegal and unconstitutional,” he stated afterward. “The issue is currently pending in the Gauhati High Court. The government led by Himanta Biswa Sarma is unlawfully demolishing homes.”

Gogoi further alleged that these evictions are targeting Muslims to gain Hindu votes. “The BJP government is specifically targeting minorities simply because they are Muslims,” he added.

Later that day, the Chief Minister announced plans for another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, which is designated as a reserved forest in Goalpara district.

“Our objective is to clear encroached land for public use,” Sarma told reporters. “We stand with the indigenous people of Assam, while Akhil Gogoi represents a specific community. That is our political stance, and we will continue our efforts.”

Approximately 400 residents from Charuabakhra Jangal Block, who had settled on government land after losing their homes to erosion from the Brahmaputra River, filed a case against the eviction notices in the Gauhati High Court in April.

The residents argued that the actions taken by district authorities contravened a ruling issued by the Supreme Court in November.

The case remains unresolved in the High Court.

In November, the Supreme Court deemed the practice of demolishing properties of individuals accused of crimes as a punitive measure to be illegal. It emphasized that proper procedures must be followed before removing alleged illegal encroachments.

This marks the fourth significant eviction carried out in the past month.

On June 16, authorities in Goalpara demolished the homes of 690 families, all of whom were Bengali-origin Muslims, residing on allegedly encroached land in Hasila Beel, a wetland area.

Residents claimed that many had lived in the area prior to its designation as a wetland.

On June 30, 93 families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted in Nalbari district during an anti-encroachment operation on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.

On Thursday, around 220 families faced eviction during an anti-encroachment drive in Lakhimpur district, where district authorities stated that the families were occupying 77 acres of land across four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves.

Since the BJP assumed power in Assam in 2016, over 10,620 families, predominantly Muslim, have been displaced from government land, according to data from the state revenue and disaster management department, covering the period from 2016 to August 2024.