Why Bengali Muslim workers are being driven out of Upper Assam
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma did not offer any assurance and instead asked why labourers from Lower Assam need to travel to Sivasagar.
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On August 25, Zakaria Alam took a train from Namtiali railway station in Upper Assam and made his way back home.
The 36-year-old was accompanied by 11 other construction workers, all of whom decided it was no longer safe to stay in Sivasagar district. Hours ago, a number of organisations that claim to represent “indigenous” Assamese interests had given an ultimatum – that all Bengali-origin Muslim workers in the district should leave within seven days.
It was, they said, a Miya Kheda andolan – a movement to drive out Miyas, the derogatory term used in Assam for Bengali-origin Muslims, from the Upper Assam district.
The administrative division of Upper Assam, comprising nine districts, is the heartland of Assamese politics and home to several ethnic communities.
For six-odd years, Alam has been working as a raj mistri or mason in Namtiali at construction sites, earning Rs 700 daily by working 8-12 hours. “I have not faced such threats earlier,” said Alam, who returned to his family in Laharighat in Morigaon district. “Our employer said it is better not to take a risk and that we could return later when the situation is less tense. He said no one will take responsibility if anything happens.”
Hundreds of other Bengali-origin Muslim workers from...
