GUWAHATI, India: The displacement of thousands of Muslim residents in India’s Assam state has intensified criticism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with back-to-back eviction operations over the past three weeks leaving families homeless and raising serious questions about minority rights, religious freedom and the treatment of vulnerable communities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political leadership.
The latest operation took place on November 1 in Dhubri district, where authorities demolished homes belonging to more than 640 Bengali Muslim families, displacing over 4,000 people from approximately 650 bighas of land in Alamganj Part-IX village.
Muslims in Dhubri, Assam are crying and praying to Allah as their homes faces demolition. Around 800 families are reportedly affected by the eviction drive.
Meanwhile, Assam’s CM is celebrating the demolition. Is this governance or the politics of humiliation? https://t.co/UOQHE6bi1C
— Mohd Shadab Khan (@VoxShadabKhan) November 3, 2026
The operation followed a two-day demolition campaign on October 17 and 18 across Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat districts, where more than 1,100 predominantly Muslim families were evicted. Residents also reported that over 10 mosques, including some more than 50 years old, were demolished during that operation.
Read Also: India Demolished 23 Mosques and Muslim Religious Sites in 45 Days: Report
The successive drives have renewed allegations that Muslim communities are bearing a disproportionate burden of the BJP-led Assam government’s land-clearance campaign, even as authorities maintain that the operations are aimed at removing encroachments from government and forest land.
Thousands displaced in successive demolition drives
In the November 1 operation, authorities cleared around 650 bighas of government-owned land in Alamganj Part-IX village. Dhubri District Commissioner Dibakar Nath told Scroll that eviction notices had been served to residents approximately 800 bighas, but the remaining 150 bighas were excluded because of pending court cases.
This is from Assam where 750 Families Removed, Mosques Demolished In Assam Eviction Drive.
When will this stop? https://t.co/4fkvmIfAeW
— هارون خان (@iamharunkhan) November 2, 2026
The administration said the cleared land would be handed over to the state’s Industries Department for a proposed industrial park.
However, residents disputed official claims about their occupation of the land. Ali Chand Fakir, an 80-year-old resident, told media that he had lived in the village since 1962 after moving from neighbouring Goalpara district because of erosion and flooding caused by the Brahmaputra River.
Many displaced families are now reportedly staying with relatives, in makeshift shelters or under tarpaulins along roadsides, without alternative land or permanent accommodation.
The November operation came barely two weeks after the eviction of more than 1,100 Muslim families across Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat.
Dhubri, Assam. A Muslim-majority village, 812 families have been told to vacate their homes, electricity has been cut off & hundreds of families are being forced to demolish their own homes. https://t.co/9nIVZqKgr0
— Abid Hasan (@ahasan01031979) October 31, 2026
More than 10 mosques demolished
The October operation also sparked concern over the reported destruction of more than 10 mosques, some of which residents said had served local communities for over five decades.
Read Also: Evictions And Expulsions of Muslims to Bangladesh Precede Indian State Polls
In Nagaon’s Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest, authorities demolished homes belonging to more than 600 Muslim families on October 18, claiming the settlements occupied protected forest land.
Residents rejected the administration’s description of them as encroachers, arguing that their families had been settled in the area by the government decades ago.
📍 Alamganj, Dhubri | Assam
As part of an eviction drive in Assam, the homes of nearly 550 Muslim families, along with religious sites and a graveyard, were targeted.
In protest, local residents offered prayers at the Kamel Peer Sahabuddin Aulia Mazar and demonstrated against the administration’s action.
The families were labelled encroachers for failing to submit proof of residence within the stipulated 15 days.
— Muslim Voice Cell (@MuslimVoiceCell) November 1, 2026
Abdul Noor, a 44-year-old resident whose home was demolished, told that around 300 landless families had been settled there in 1974, with each family receiving four bighas of land.
He said many residents had worked as labourers for the Forest Department and that their settlement was linked to the colonial-era taungya system of forest management.
The All India Union of Forest Working People had urged the Assam government in June to halt the planned eviction, arguing that residents of four villages in the reserve forest had been settled under the system and should not be treated as ordinary encroachers.
📍 Alamganj, Dhubri, Assam
The condition of families displaced by the eviction drive is heartbreaking. Hundreds of homes have been reduced to rubble.
Please keep these families in your prayers. May Allah ease their suffering and keep them safe. Ameen. https://t.co/SU2q7Wa7Dc
— Muslim Voice Cell (@MuslimVoiceCell) November 4, 2026
BJP’s decade in Assam and minority rights concerns
The scale of the latest operations has drawn further attention to the wider record of evictions in Assam under BJP rule.
According to data compiled by Scroll from the state Revenue and Disaster Management Department and district authorities, around 19,000 families, the majority of them Muslims, have been evicted from government land during the BJP’s decade in power in the state.
The repeated displacement of Bengali Muslim households, combined with reports of mosques being demolished, has intensified criticism of the BJP government’s approach towards religious minorities and raised questions about whether adequate safeguards, rehabilitation and equal treatment are being ensured.
📍 Dhubri, Assam
On November 1, the administration carried out a large-scale eviction drive in Alamganj Part-IX, Gauripur, in Assam’s Dhubri district.
Hundreds of Muslim families’ homes and other structures were demolished using bulldozers.
A madrasa was also demolished during the operation, leaving many families facing uncertainty about their homes and future.
— Muslim Voice Cell (@MuslimVoiceCell) November 2, 2026
The continuing displacement of thousands of Muslim residents has kept the issue of minority rights, access to shelter and the protection of religious places at the centre of the controversy, placing renewed scrutiny on the BJP government in Assam and the wider political leadership of the ruling party in India.
