Modi’s crackdown: Muslims in India forced into swamps and deported at gunpoint Revealing report by French media

The French broadcaster France 24 has released a powerful exposé detailing the forced expulsions of Muslims from India. Caliber.Az brings this eye-opening report to our readers in full.

India has been accused of unlawfully deporting hundreds of people—most of them Bengali-speaking Muslims—to Bangladesh without trial, in a sweeping crackdown that human rights activists and legal experts describe as illegal, discriminatory, and rooted in ethnic profiling.

Indian authorities claim the individuals expelled were undocumented migrants. However, rights groups say many had lived in India for generations and were forcibly pushed across the border in violation of legal norms and human rights.

The Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a hardline stance on immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Top Indian officials have previously referred to such migrants as “infiltrators” and “termites,” sparking fear among India’s roughly 200 million Muslims, especially in the east, where Bengali is widely spoken across both India and Bangladesh.

“Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,” said Harsh Mander, a prominent Indian human rights activist. “You have thrown millions into this existential fear.”

Diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh have worsened since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka’s India-aligned government. Since then, New Delhi has escalated deportation operations.

These actions intensified following a deadly terrorist attack on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, were killed. India blamed the attack on Pakistan—a claim Islamabad rejected—leading to a brief four-day conflict that killed over 70 people.

In the aftermath, Indian authorities launched an unprecedented nationwide security sweep. Thousands were detained, and hundreds were forcibly expelled across the border into Bangladesh—often under duress and without due process.

Firsthand accounts of abuse

Rahima Begum, a resident of Assam in eastern India, said she was detained by police in late May and later deported across the border.

“I have lived all my life here—my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,” Begum told AFP. “I don’t know why they would do this to me.”

According to her, she and five other Muslim detainees were taken to the border at night. “They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,” she said. “They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.’”

Bangladeshi villagers later discovered the group and handed them to the country’s border police, who allegedly beat them and ordered them to return to India. As they approached the Indian side again, Begum said, gunfire erupted. “We thought: ‘This is the end. We are all going to die.’”

She survived the ordeal and was returned to her home in Assam a week later, with a warning to remain silent.

Legal and political criticism

Legal experts and human rights defenders have condemned the deportations as violations of both Indian and international law.

“You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,” said Sanjay Hegde, a civil rights lawyer in New Delhi, noting that Indian law prohibits deportation without proper legal proceedings.

Bangladeshi authorities report that more than 1,600 people have been pushed across the border since May, while Indian media puts the figure closer to 2,500. The Bangladesh Border Guards say they have returned around 100 individuals after confirming they were Indian citizens.

India has also been previously accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, including incidents where the Indian Navy dropped refugees off the coast of the conflict-ridden nation.

Much of the recent crackdown has targeted low-wage laborers in Indian states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In Gujarat, for instance, police said more than 6,500 people had been rounded up—many of them Bengali-speaking Muslims. Most were later released.

In Assam, the state's chief minister confirmed that over 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh.

“People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,” Mander said.

ID ignored, lives upended

Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was arrested in Mumbai, flown by military aircraft to Tripura, and pushed into Bangladesh. “The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,” Mondal said.

Despite showing his government-issued ID card, he said authorities refused to listen. He has since returned to his home state of West Bengal but is now afraid to even leave his house in search of work.

By Tamilla Hasanova