The Assam government on Sunday demolished the homes of more than 600 Muslim families in the Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest in Nagaon district, which the administration claimed were encroaching on forest land, a senior forest official told Scroll. This was the second day of the demolition drive.
On Saturday, more than 500 Muslim families were evicted in three Assam districts, senior government officials told Scroll. The evictions were carried out in Nagaon, Golaghat and Hojai amid heavy security. A total of 547 families – 336 in Nagaon, 59 in Golaghat and 152 in Hojai – were evicted. Most of those affected were Bengali Muslims.
The families in Lutumari had been living on more than 300 hectares of land in the reserve forest for decades. The affected residents said they were not encroachers and had been settled there by the government.
“We were settled by the government in 1974,” Abdul Noor, a 44-year-old resident of Lutumari whose home was demolished on Sunday, told Scroll. “We are originally from nearby Juria town but were settled by the government as our forefathers were landless. Altogether, 300 landless families were given four bighas of land each.”
He added: “We had challenged the eviction in the Gauhati High Court, but the court did not give us...