Human rights group alleges illegal detention, forced deportation of Bengali-speaking couple

By A Representative

In a shocking revelation, a leading human rights organization has alleged that a Bengali-speaking Muslim couple from West Bengal, working as migrant labourers in Mumbai, were illegally detained, denied due process, and forcibly deported to Bangladesh by Indian security forces, despite being Indian citizens.

Kirity Roy, Secretary of Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), and National Convenor of the Programme Against Custodial Torture and Impunity (PACTI), in a letter addressed to the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has detailed what he described as “a deeply disturbing and frightful incident that has shaken the conscience of many.”

According to the complaint, on the night of 9–10 June 2025, at around 2:00 AM, a large contingent of police officers raided homes in Mira Road, under Nayangarh Police Station in Mumbai. The operation reportedly targeted Bengali-speaking Muslim residents. Among those detained were Mr. Fajir Mandal (21) and his wife Ms. Taslima Ishak Mandal, both originally from Hariharpur village, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. The couple, along with Ms. Taslima’s in-laws and others, were taken without warrant and held incommunicado for four days in a BMC-owned building.

During their illegal detention, the detainees were allegedly subjected to ill-treatment, inadequate food, communal slurs, and denial of legal recourse. Despite the father of Mr. Fajir sending documentation confirming Indian citizenship, no legal proceedings were initiated, and the documents were ignored, the complaint said.

On 13 June, the detainees were reportedly chained, placed under tight security, and transported via Pune Army Airport to Bagdogra Airport in West Bengal. They were then driven to Kayladangi Border Out Post (BOP) in North Dinajpur and pushed across the border fence into Bangladesh under the custody of the 87 Battalion of the Border Security Force (BSF).

Kirity Roy stated: “This is an outrageous violation of constitutional and human rights protections. The victims were treated like aliens in their own land, denied every safeguard of the law, and literally thrown out of the country by state forces. It reflects a disturbing pattern of racial and religious profiling targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims.”

The group was reportedly intercepted by the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), who denied them entry. The victims remained stranded in no-man’s-land until local West Bengal representatives, including panchayat member Mr. Abdul Gaffar, raised the alarm and contacted the Chief Minister’s office, prompting eventual intervention.

MASUM’s letter calls for immediate NHRC action, including:

- A full, impartial investigation by the NHRC’s investigation wing

- Reports from Maharashtra and West Bengal police and the BSF

- Protection and compensation for the victims

- Disciplinary and legal action against responsible officers

- Steps to ensure non-recurrence of such incidents

Roy warned that failure to act would embolden impunity and deepen fear within minority communities, stating: “Such actions tear at the very fabric of our constitutional democracy and erode public trust in law enforcement and governance.”

MASUM has submitted supporting documentation to the NHRC, including victim photographs and a copy of a complaint sent to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The group emphasized that this is “only one out of thousands of such incidents” and urged swift and visible accountability.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog