Twenty-five-year-old Sabiqul Islam was having lunch when police officers dressed in plain clothes dragged him out of his rented accommodation in Gurugram’s Sector 10 and bundled him into a police van, according to his relatives. Mr. Islam is one of the seven Bengali-speaking migrant workers who were detained by Gurugram Police between July 18 and July 20 on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals illegally living in India.
According to Mr. Islam’s family members, who said they are from West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur district and have reached out to their village head and local leaders back home to send help, he was detained by the police on July 20 despite furnishing his Aadhaar and voter ID cards. “The police said that he was being taken for a verification of his documents, which would take around 30 minutes. It’s going to be two days since, and he has not been released,” said a relative.
When two of his other relatives, Mominul Islam, 30, and Sadat Hussian, 22, both working as housekeeping staff, went to the police station to trace his whereabouts, they too were taken into custody, the family member alleged.
In a similar instance, Mamoni Khatun, 26, said four persons from her family — Anshul Ali, 50, Alam Ali, 26, Noor Alam, 26, and Mukul Ali, 27 — were detained by officers in plain clothes on July 18 around 10.30 p.m. She said they have produced their Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards and land documents proving that they were residents of Chanchol, Malda district in West Bengal. “Two of them work as carwashers, one as a Zomato delivery agent and another one is a labourer. All four go through police verification every six months but despite all that they are harassing us,” Ms. Khatoon said, adding that West Bengal Police and their village head have contacted Gurugram Police to inform them about the detained persons’ Indian citizenship.
Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of Gurugram Police, said the verification of people suspected to be “illegal” Bangladeshi nationals is a routine procedure. “We conduct such drives every few months,” he said.
Published – July 22, 2025 01:43 am IST
