Tanya Arora

In recent weeks, a chilling pattern has emerged across multiple Indian states, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, where Bengali-speaking migrant workers, most of them Indian citizens, have been rounded up in mass raids, detained without proper inquiry, denied recognition of valid Indian documentation, and in some cases, forcibly deported to Bangladesh. These sweeping actions, occurring under the alleged guise of cracking down on “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants”, have sparked alarm across affected communities, their support groups, civil rights organisations and provoked political outrage from the West Bengal government, and prompted judicial scrutiny led by the Calcutta High Court. The resulting crisis raises urgent constitutional questions about citizenship, discrimination, and federalism in India.

Judicial Firewall: Calcutta HC Sounds Constitutional Alarm

On July 17, 2025, the Calcutta High Court issued a pointed rebuke to the Union government and state authorities over the sudden and widespread raids conducted in June to identify so-called “illegal Bangladeshis.” As per the report of Times of India, a division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra posed blunt questions: “What were the reasons for these sudden nationwide raids? Were they pre-planned? On what intelligence were they based?” The Court, hearing habeas corpus petitions concerning the alleged illegal detention and deportation of Bengali-speaking migrants, including a family of three from Birbhum allegedly pushed into Bangladesh, emphasised that such actions, if based solely on language or appearance, risk sending a “wrong and dangerous message.”

The Court directed the West Bengal government, the Delhi Police, and the Union government to file detailed affidavits regarding the legality of the detentions and deportations. As per the report of LiveLaw, State counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay submitted that it was outrageous to detain or deport any individual solely because they spoke Bengali. “The constable is not the competent authority. You cannot criminalize language. There is a procedure, a legal standard, that must be met to question someone’s citizenship,” he said, demanding data on the number of detainees and those deported.

In response, senior Union government counsel Asoke Kumar Chakraborty questioned whether habeas corpus petitions were maintainable after deportation, revealing that a parallel case had been filed in the Delhi High Court—information which the Calcutta HC had not been told earlier. The Court came down harshly on the petitioners’ lawyer for this procedural suppression. “This is not expected from a senior advocate. Do not try to play tricks with the court,” Justice Chakraborty warned according to the LiveLaw report. Yet, despite these procedural hiccups, the Court refused to dismiss the matter and insisted on detailed disclosures, recognizing the larger human rights issues at stake.

Odisha: Mass Detentions, Arbitrary Identification, Partial Relief

The largest cluster of arrests took place in Odisha, where between June and July 2025, 447 Bengali-speaking migrant workers, most of them masons, daily-wage labourers, or street vendors from districts such as Birbhum, Murshidabad, and South 24 Parganas, were rounded up by police, particularly in Jharsuguda, Khurda, and nearby districts. According to a Scroll report, at least 403 detainees have since been released after sustained legal, political, and administrative pressure—but dozens remain in custody, often on specious grounds.

Multiple detainees testified that police refused to accept Aadhaar, voter ID, or even ration cards as legitimate identification. Instead, they were asked to produce birth and school certificates, often impossible for migrant workers who left their villages as teenagers. Others were detained simply for having Bangladeshi phone numbers saved on their mobile phones, which the police used as an alleged indicator of foreign nationality.

As provided in the TOI report, Ajimuddin Sheikh, 22, from Birbhum, was one such migrant detained during a 1 a.m. police raid near Brajarajnagar. “They seized our phones. Even when we showed voter ID and Aadhaar, they said it was not enough,” he recounted, while speaking to the TOI. His 18-year-old cousin, Nijamuddin Sheikh, added that they were interrogated repeatedly, their phones scanned for Bangladeshi contacts, and only released after producing additional documentation and being vouched for by a local guarantor.

Trinamool MP Samirul Islam, who chairs the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board, confirmed that most of those detained had been working in Odisha legally for several years. He lambasted the Odisha Police for refusing to accept Indian documents and treating labourers like foreign infiltrators. “There is no law that says a Bengali-speaking labourer cannot work in another Indian state,” he said, as per The Indian Express.

Despite some relief after the High Court sought explanations, Islam and MP Mahua Moitra warned that the mass profiling of Bengali-speaking workers is far from over—and that several youth still remain in custody.

Chhattisgarh: From Detention to Forced Repatriation

In Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh, nine Bengali-speaking masons, residents of Krishnanagar in West Bengal, were picked up on July 12 from a school construction site, The Hindu reported. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra revealed that despite possessing valid documents and being recruited through a verified contractor, the men were detained, denied contact with their families, and allegedly put on buses and sent back to Bengal—without any court order authorizing their removal, reported by TOI.

The Chhattisgarh Police claimed that the men failed to register with local authorities and were detained under preventive sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), India’s new criminal procedure code. However, according to IE, Moitra questioned why they were not given access to legal counsel, why their phones were confiscated, and why families were not informed. A habeas corpus petition has now been filed in the Chhattisgarh High Court.

Maharashtra: Matua Community Targeted, ID Cards Ignored

In Pune, members of the Matua community, a Dalit religious minority of Bengali origin, were detained by Maharashtra Police on suspicions of being undocumented migrants, according to TOI. Samirul Islam reported that despite furnishing Aadhaar, voter ID, and certificates from the All India Matua Mahasangha, detainees were not released.

Shockingly, even children were among those picked up, and police reportedly refused to recognize documents issued by the AIMM, as per the report. TMC leaders expressed dismay that Santanu Thakur, a BJP MP and Union Minister who himself belongs to the Matua community, remained silent in the face of persecution of his own constituents.

Delhi and Gurugram Crackdown

In Delhi, as reported by India Today, the TMC has led a series of protests in Jai Hind Colony, Vasant Kunj, a settlement housing hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrant workers. Despite valid documentation, residents say they have been targeted with evictions, electricity and water cutoffs, and routine harassment by police.

Meanwhile, in Gurugram, at least 26 Bengali-speaking workers from Assam were detained and interrogated over two days. Though eventually released, they alleged that voter ID and Aadhaar cards were rejected and that Muslim workers were disproportionately targeted.

Forced Pushbacks and International Law Violations

Civil rights groups and legal experts have expressed alarm at what appears to be a coordinated “pushback” policy being implemented quietly across multiple states, allegedly under a Union-led directive. According to investigative reports, more than 2,000 persons have been forced across the Indo-Bangladesh border since the initiation of “Operation Sindoor”, which was a military operation ostensibly targeting cross-border terror camps but now being linked to mass civilian expulsions.

These deportations, without legal adjudication, without access to lawyers or courts, and based on profiling, stand in clear violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and India’s obligations under international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement.

Bengal Pushes Back: Legal Action, Protests, Linguistic Defiance

The West Bengal government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has mounted one of the strongest political and legal responses yet to the ongoing crackdown on Bengali-speaking migrants across BJP-ruled states. Calling it a “coordinated campaign to erase Bengali identity from the Indian Union,” Banerjee’s administration has launched a multi-pronged resistance: taking the fight to the courts, to Parliament, to civil society, and most strikingly, to the streets.

1. Legal interventions and habeas petitions

West Bengal’s legal machinery was among the first to intervene after news broke in late May and June that Indian citizens, including women and minors, had allegedly been pushed across the Indo-Bangladesh border by Assam and Maharashtra Police.

According to The Telegraph, Maktoob, and Indian Express, the State of West Bengal has taken a proactive legal and administrative stance in ongoing cases concerning the wrongful detention and deportation of Bengali-speaking migrants. It has challenged detentions and deportations carried out without Foreigners Tribunal orders or judicial oversight, particularly in cases where individuals possessed valid Indian documents. The Calcutta High Court has repeatedly flagged these incidents as potentially illegal and directed the State to respond. In compliance, the West Bengal government has dispatched state police and administrative teams to states such as Odisha and Maharashtra to trace missing persons, facilitate their release, and assist with documentation, including the recording of victim testimonies. The State has also filed multiple status reports before the Calcutta High Court, detailing repatriation efforts and procedural violations. Acting on judicial direction, the Chief Secretary has appointed a nodal officer to liaise with the governments of other states and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure coordinated response mechanisms and prevent further unlawful detentions.

2. Political Leadership: Mamata’s “I will speak more in Bengali” challenge

Mamata Banerjee has not only condemned the raids as unconstitutional but also reframed the issue as a battle for linguistic dignity. On July 16, during a mass rally in central Kolkata, she declared: “I dare you to send me to a detention camp, I will speak more in Bengali,” and “Altogether 1,000 migrant workers have been arrested and detained in BJP-ruled states and many have been pushed back to Bangladesh. People from Birbhum, Cooch Behar, Nadia and other districts are being detained in Odisha and BJP-ruled states,” she said, according to the Economic Times.

Addressing a massive public gathering during the protest march, as reported by Hindustan Times, Mamata Banerjee said, “The BJP calls all Bengali-speaking people Bangladeshi Rohingyas… Rohingyas live in Myanmar. Here, all citizens of West Bengal have proper ID cards and identification. The labourers who have gone outside Bengal have not gone on their own. They have been employed because they have skills… Anyone who speaks Bengali is being arrested and put behind bars. Why? Is West Bengal not a part of India?”

3. Administrative support for victims and families

The West Bengal government has taken several concrete steps to support affected families and challenge interstate detentions:

• Interstate coordination mandated by Court: On direction from the Calcutta High Court, the West Bengal Chief Secretary has appointed a nodal officer to liaise with states like Odisha and Delhi, ensuring the identification and release of Bengali-speaking migrants detained without due process, according to LiveLaw.
• Chief Secretary’s objection to profiling: Chief Secretary Manoj Pant sent a formal letter to the Odisha government objecting to the detention of migrants who had valid Indian documents and condemning demands for ancestral land records as arbitrary and discriminatory, as per Indian Express.
• Verification of migrants across states: Bengal Police has undertaken a large-scale verification drive across multiple states, including Odisha, Maharashtra, and Delhi, covering over 750 cases of suspected wrongful detention. Officials have relied on a mix of local documentation (e.g., ration cards, land deeds, school certificates) to authenticate identity, according to the reports of TOI.
• Interstate legal cell under consideration: According to government officials cited in press briefings, the Home Department may establish a dedicated interstate legal response cell to track migrant-related detentions, deportations, and facilitate legal aid across borders, as provided by New Indian Express.

4. National advocacy

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu, demanding her intervention in the said situation. In the said memorandum, as reported by IE, the former Congress MP wrote: “It’s very sad and cruel fact that Bengali-speaking daily wage labourers, who are bonafide Indian citizens, are being targeted due to their physical appearance and accent, which is being mistaken for that of Bangladeshis. This similarity is being used as a pretext to harass, humiliate, physically assault, and hold these innocent people in detention.”

Chowdhury emphasised that these labourers are not only Indian citizens, but also contributors to the national economy. “Now, they are being rendered unemployed, homeless, and stateless,” he said, urging the President to step in to protect citizens from communal profiling and unlawful deportations.

Language on Trial, Citizenship in Crisis

The targeting of Bengali-speaking migrants across Indian states has transformed from isolated administrative excesses into a full-blown constitutional crisis. At its core, this moment tests the strength of India’s federal framework, the sanctity of citizenship, and the basic right to dignity regardless of region, religion, or language. When Indian citizens with valid documents are detained, deported, or denied recognition simply for speaking Bengali, it sets a dangerous precedent—not just for Bengalis, but for all linguistic and regional minorities.

The pushback from the Calcutta High Court, the West Bengal government, and sections of civil society has sparked a vital resistance against arbitrary profiling and extra-legal state action. Yet the broader question remains: will the Union government address the growing pattern of exclusionary policies, or allow language and identity to become fault lines for discrimination?

India was envisioned as a pluralistic democracy where diversity is a foundation, not a fault. The events unfolding today demand urgent legal, political, and moral clarity. The road ahead will determine whether that vision endures—or whether silence enables a slow erosion of constitutional protections, starting with those who speak Bengali.

[Tanya Arora works as a human rights lawyer and feature writer at CJP. Courtesy: Sabrang India, an online portal dedicated to fighting the cancer of divisive politics. It is edited by Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand.]

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Why Bengali Migrant Workers in BJP-Ruled States are Being Asked to Prove They are Indians

Rokibuz Zaman

On the morning of June 30, the Odisha police landed up at the home of Ismail Sheikh, a 34-year-old mason from Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

Sheikh had arrived in Odisha three days ago to work at a building construction site in Jagatsinghpur district, and was living with four other workers from Murshidabad.

“The police asked us where we were from and what our religion was,” Sheikh recounted to Scroll. “I told them that we are from Murshidabad and we are Muslims.”

The police officials then asked Sheikh to visit the Balikuda police station and submit his and his roommates’ Aadhaar cards. He complied.

The next day, the five workers from Bengal were summoned to the police station again. They went with their documents but were asked to go to the Paradeep police station, 65 km away, to verify their documents. “They said we will be taken in a bus and brought back the same way. We agreed,” he said.

At Paradeep police station, however, their photographs were taken and they were taken to a camp 2 km away. Sheikh saw that other Bengali Muslim workers in Balikuda had also been summoned to the camp. “We were 36 people in all,” Sheikh said.

It was at the camp that Sheikh realised why they had been called there. “One official from the Jagatsinghpur district administration came to the camp and said: ‘You all are Bangladeshi. You are speaking Bengali means you are Bangladeshi’,” Sheikh said. “He threatened to take us to the border and hand us to the BSF [Border Security Force].”

Sheikh recounted the official saying: “Don’t talk too much, or we will send you to Bangladesh.”

Sheikh and 35 other workers spent six days at the camp. They were released on the morning of July 5 after the intervention of the West Bengal government.

Others were not as lucky. On June 20, two families were picked up by the Delhi Police from a slum in Rohini – 29-year-old scrap dealer Danish, his wife and son, and 33-year-old Sweety Bibi and her two minor sons.

Six days later, they were “pushed” into Bangladesh, according to a police statement. The police refused to accept that that they belonged to Birbhum district in West Bengal.

“She called us from Bangladesh, weeping and crying for help,” Lajina Bibi, Sweety’s 50-year-old mother, told Scroll.

Danish’s other child, seven-year-old Anisa Khatun, has been left behind in Delhi. She was hiding with her grandmother Josnra Bibi during the police raid.

When Scroll met Josnra, she insisted that they were Indians, pulling out documents from a plastic carry bag to make her case. She said she last heard from her daughter and son-in-law when someone called from Bangladesh offering to help them cross the border and return to India in exchange for Rs 35,000. “But I don’t have the money.”

Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, too, vouched for the families. “They are from my home district Birbhum and live 40 km from my home. They are Indians.”

Islam has helped the families file habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court.

These are not isolated instances.

Over the last two months, Bengali-speaking migrant workers like Sheikh and Danish 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 and not Bangladeshis. Most of those being detained are Muslims.

In Gujarat, days after the Pahalgam terror attack, hundreds of Bengali migrant workers were paraded on the streets of Ahmedabad and rounded up as a part of a drive to identify illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

In Mumbai, too, Muslim families from West Bengal were forced out of India and taken to Bangladesh, without being given adequate time to prove that they are Indians. They were brought back once the West Bengal government raised the issue.

‘A targeted assault’

On July 7, when Sheikh spoke to Scroll, he said he was returning home to Bengal, even though he had not been paid for his work and his bike was still in Odisha. “If we don’t have security, we will not come [back],” he said.

Three days after Sheikh was released, the police in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district rounded up 444 “suspected foreign nationals”, who were then taken to a centre to verify their documents. “We are doing this verification under the Foreigners’ Act and guidelines from the home ministry,” a senior police official in Jharsuguda told Scroll.

However, migrant workers representatives from Bengal denied that the detained people were foreigners. “All are from Malda, Birbhum, Murshidabad and other districts,” Mohammad Ripon Sheikh, who heads the migrant labourer organisation, Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha, told Scroll.

“They are being detained even if they have no police records,” Samirul Islam, who is also the chairman of the state’s Migrant Welfare Board, told Scroll. “The police officers of the BJP-ruled states are detaining migrant workers for over 24 hours, without producing them before the court. Which law allows them to do so?”

On July 3, Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant wrote to his Odisha counterpart, flagging instances of Bengali-speaking migrant workers being detained without “due process” in regions around Paradip and across coastal districts of Odisha. “It is deeply distressing to learn that many of them are being targeted solely because they speak Bengali, their mother tongue, and are being unjustly labeled as Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Pant said.

A migrant workers’ platform from Malda estimates that over 120 Bengali workers have returned to the Bengal district “in fear, abandoning their jobs and livelihoods”.

Mohammad Rafik Ahmed, coordinator of the Malda Sromik Pokkho, told Scroll: “After the tragic Pahalgam attack, we have received over 170 distress calls from workers in Rajasthan, Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and other states. More than 500 Bengali workers have been assaulted, evicted, or threatened. At least 300 have been detained – many without any legal basis, particularly in Odisha and Rajasthan.”

He added: “This is not merely a law-and-order issue, it is a targeted assault on the identity, livelihood, and dignity of Bengali workers.”

‘Pushed into Bangladesh’

Bangali Basti is a settlement of Bengali migrants in Delhi’s Rohini. In the last month or so, the residents of the slum told Scroll, the police had carried out several raids to “identify illegal immigrants”.

In one such drive on June 20, the police picked up Danish, his wife Sunali Khatun and five-year-old son.

According to two police statements seen by Scroll, the three were held in a detention centre in Rohini’s Vijay Vihar. On June 23, they were produced at the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office in Delhi. Another family was detained along with them – 33-year-old Sweety Bibi and her two minor sons, one of whom is five years old.

A deportation order against all six was issued by the FRRO office the same day. Scroll has seen the order.

According to the police, they were tipped off by an informer, who identified Danish as “a Bangladeshi national”. The police also claimed that Danish had “confessed” to being a Bangladeshi citizen.

On June 26, they were “pushed” into Bangladesh, according to a statement of the station house officer of KN Katju Marg police station in Delhi’s Rohini district and an order of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Delhi. Scroll has seen the police statement and the FRRO order.

Sweety’s 50-year-old mother Lajina, who also lives in Delhi, said they had shown their Aadhaar and voter cards to the police but those were not accepted. She claimed that Sweety Bibi, like Sunali, was from Paikar village in Bengal’s Birbhum district.

A relative of Danish, Roshini, confirmed to Scroll that he was in Bangladesh. “We submitted our documents and Aadhaar cards to the police in Rohini but they threw them away, saying you are Bangladeshi and we will send you to Bangladesh,” she said.

Roshini claimed that they had submitted land documents and voter cards of their family members. “Even the police from Birbhum district talked with Rohini police but they were not released,” she said.

When Scroll visited the Rohini slum on July 10, it wore a deserted look. Most residents had made their way back to their native villages in West Bengal.

Danish’s mother-in-law Josnra Bibi had not left. Following her around was Anisa Khatun, his daughter. During the police raid on June 20, Josnra Bibi said she had hid in another hut with Anisa.

Josnra Bibi alleged that everyone in the slum is “terrified” .“The police treat us like stray dogs,” she said. “They came to our hut and said, ‘Why are you Bangladeshis not leaving this place?’ They say that Bengali-speaking means Bangladeshi. But only Muslims are being picked up.”

Sandeep Gupta, Rohini’s additional deputy commissioner of police, denied allegations of harassment. “We act as per law,” he told Scroll. “If anyone has any grievance related to any such matter, they can send a representation to us.”

Bhodu Sheikh, Sunali Khatun’s father, and Amir Khan, the elder brother of Sweety Bibi, have filed separate habeas corpus petitions before the Calcutta High Court.

On Friday, the court sought a report from the Union home ministry by July 16 on the deportation of Danish, Sunali, Sweety and their three children.

In June, seven migrant workers from Bengal were similarly picked up by the Mumbai police, who refused to believe they were Indian citizens. They were then flown to Bengal and forced across the border into Bangladesh.

Fajer Mandal, a 21-year-old mason from North 24 Parganas who was picked up with his wife, told Scroll that he submitted a bunch of documents to the police, from his “polio vaccination card to his Aadhaar card and land documents from Bengal”. “They said these were duplicates, that I had paid for them. They said I am a Bangladeshi and I don’t have anyone here in India,” he said.

The case of Mehboob Sheikh from Murshidabad district was no less striking. The police pushed him out in four days despite intervention from the Bengal police, the state migrant welfare board and submission of necessary documents to prove his Indian citizenship.

All seven were later brought back from Bangladesh with the help of the Bengal police, Samirul Islam, chief of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board, told Scroll.

‘They are asking for birth certificates’

West Bengal’s leaders and officials have also flagged the fact that the police in these states have been insisting on documentary proof that is hard to access for people from rural areas. “They are refusing to accept genuine Aadhar cards, voter cards and ration cards as identity proofs,” Samirul Islam, the Rajya Sabha MP, told Scroll. “The authorities are not even contacting the state government to verify their citizenship.”

Family members of workers held in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district told Scroll that the police had asked for birth certificates in order to release them.

Liptan Sheikh, a 40-year-old mason from Birbhum district, is being held in a camp in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi.

His nephew Moijuddin Sheikh said the police have detained him for over four days, and insist on a birth certificate to prove he is not an illegal immigrant. “But he does not have a birth certificate. We have submitted his school certificate, voter ID card and Aadhar card. But they have not accepted any of these.”

The senior police official from Jharsuguda told Scroll on Friday that the “primary” documents to ascertain the nationality of the migrant workers are birth certificates and passports. “The supporting documents include Aadhaar, voter cards and land records. When they are able to produce those, we are letting them go,” the official said. “This is not detention, but verification.”

Several migrant workers released from detention told The Indian Express and The Hindu that their phones were checked to see if they had any contacts in Bangladesh.

In his letter to the Odisha government, Bengal chief secretary Pant pointed out that “in many instances, the [detained migrant workers] are being asked to produce ancestral land records dating back several generations, an unreasonable and unjustifiable demand for migrant workers.”

Attacks in Odisha

While Bengali-speaking migrant workers from Bengal and Assam have been targeted in the past as “Bangladeshis” in Delhi and Mumbai, many have been taken aback by the hostility they have faced in the last 12 months in Odisha.

“There was peace when Naveen Patnaik was the chief minister,” said Sabirul Sheikh, a 36-year-old mason from Murshidabad, who was detained at the camp in Jagatsinghpur district with Ismail Sheikh. “The harassment started after the BJP came to power last year,” said Sheikh, who has worked in Odisha for 16 years.

The Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir, where 25 tourists were killed after being singled out for their religion, triggered a wave of hostility and attacks against Bengali workers in Odisha, several workers said.

A day after the attack, a group of 40 construction workers from Malda were attacked in Sambhalpur, Odisha. They had been hired last year by a private firm to build a flyover at Ainthapali Chowk in Sambalpur.

Rafikul Islam, one of the workers who faced the violence, said a group of men allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal came to their work site and asked whether they were Bengalis. “When we said yes, they attacked and beat up us,” he told Scroll.

Two days later, 56-year-old Alkesh Sheikh was peddling his wares on the streets of Dhenkanal district in Odisha on his two-wheeler when he was attacked by a father-son duo. The video of the violence became viral.

Alkesh Sheikh, who is from Madhupur village in Murshidabad, has been selling plastic goods, kitchen utensils, clothes, in Odisha for the last six years. “They came up to me and asked me where I am from. As soon as I said that I am from Murshidabad, they started to beat me and asked me to leave.”

He left the state soon after.

This round of attacks led to an exodus of Bengali workers from Odisha. On May 2, Trinamool Congress MP Yusuf Pathan in a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah said that workers from his Baharampur constituency, faced “targeted attacks” as they were “robbed”, “looted” and intimidated to vacate their accommodations and workplaces. According to the MP, approximately 20,000 workers fled Odisha in the following days.

Alkesh Sheikh blamed the attacks on Bengalis in Orissa on misinformation and rumour-mongering about communal violence in Bengal following the protests against the new Waqf bill.

“There were rumours in Orissa that Hindus in Murshidabad are being slaughtered,” Sheikh said. “This contributed to attacks on Bengali Muslims in Orissa.” On April 11 and April 12, protests against the Modi government’s Waqf Amendment Act turned violent in parts of Murshidabad district. Three people died in the violence.

Difficult choice

The detentions and attacks pose difficult choices for the out-migrants from West Bengal.

Many workers from Odisha said they were worried that the police had not assured them of any protection. “We spent five days in police custody even after submitting the documents. And even after releasing us, the police did not say that nothing will happen to us,” said Sabirul Sheikh.

Seven workers he had taken to Balikuda have returned because they “fear being arrested.”

Not all can afford to return home. Imdadul Sheikh, a 44-year-old mason-cum-contractor who was detained for five days with Sabirul, said he cannot leave without being paid Rs 4 lakh he is due. “I know it is unsafe here but we are poor people and this is a huge amount of money for me.”

Josnra Bibi, who is distraught at the thought of her daughter in Bangladesh, rejects any suggestion that she should leave the Delhi slum and go back to Birbhum. “How will we earn our living in the village?” she said. “We are not begging or stealing here. We were working hard to make ends meet.”

[Rokibuz Zaman is a reporter with Scroll. Courtesy: Scroll.in, an Indian digital news publication, whose English edition is edited by Naresh Fernandes.]