Police hunt for 5 declared foreigners in Assam given 24 hours to leave India

The police in northcentral Assam’s Sonitpur district are searching for five people declared non-citizens by a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT), officials said on Thursday (November 20, 2025).

The five – Hanufa, Mariyam Nessa, Fatema, Monowara, and Amjad Ali, all from the district’s Dhobokata village – were declared foreigners ex parte on October 24. The district administration issued separate orders on November 19 for their expulsion from India within 24 hours.

The orders to each of the five declared foreigners were issued by Ananda Kumar Das, Sonitpur’s District Commissioner, under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950. These were the earliest orders citing this Act since the State Cabinet, headed by Himanta Biswa Sarma, approved its implementation earlier this year.

“…being a declared foreigner, your presence in India/Assam is detrimental to the interest of the general public and also for the internal security of the State,” each order read. It directed them to remove themselves “from the territory of Assam, India, within 24 hours from receiving this order via the Dhubri/Sribhumi/South Salmara-Mankachar route”.

The mention of these routes on the India-Bangladesh border indicated that the five declared foreigners, all Muslims, have been identified as having entered the country illegally from Bangladesh.

“Further, you are intimated that in the event of any default in complying with this order, the government would be compelled to take appropriate action to remove you from the territory of the State of Assam, India, under the provisions of the above Act,” the orders read.

Based on a report filed by the Assam Police’s Border Wing, the case involving these five people reached the Sonitpur FT in 2006. The Border Wing is tasked with identifying suspected foreigners or “illegal immigrants” while an FT is a quasi-judicial body that decides the citizenship of such people.

“The FT issued the order ex parte as these five people never turned up during any of several hearings,” Mr. Das said.

“I am expecting a report from the Superintendent of Police, who visited the location but did not find them. The case will continue until they are found,” he said, adding that the authorities concerned have been asked to delete the names of the declared foreigners, in case they were beneficiaries of government schemes.

In September, the Assam Cabinet approved the framing of a standard operating procedure (SOP) under the 1950 Act. The Chief Minister had announced the SOP would, to a large extent, nullify the role of the FTs.

Citing the SOP, he had said that if a District Commissioner receives information from the police or other sources that a person is suspected to be an “illegal immigrant”, the official will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days.

“If the District Commissioner finds that the evidence submitted is not satisfactory, he can pass an expulsion order by invoking the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, ordering the removal of the undocumented immigrant from Assam by giving 24 hours and by the route so specified,” the Chief Minister had said.