Traders from Bengal’s Murshidabad allege assault in Bihar for speaking Bengali

Three migrant traders from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district have lodged a police complaint alleging that they were assaulted by some men at Nabinagar in Bihar’s Aurangabad district on September 26 and tagged as illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

“The traders, Jalim Sheikh, Dilwar Sheikh and Nasir Sheikh, lodged a complaint at the Hariharpara police station after returning home,” a district police officer said requesting anonymity.

“These men travel to Bihar every year to sell cheap household goods in rural areas. They have alleged that they were targeted because they were speaking in Bengal. However, they did not lodge any police complaint in Bihar. None of them suffered any serious injury,” the officer added.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has launched an agitation on this issue alleging that police in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states are detaining Bengali-speaking migrant workers on the suspicion that they are infiltrators.

The Calcutta high court directed the Centre on September 26 to bring back six members of two Birbhum district-based families, including a pregnant woman and two minors, who were detained in Delhi in June and deported on the orders of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

The Bengal legislative assembly passed a resolution on September 4 condemning these detentions. The Trinamool Congress government moved it alleging that people having identity documents such as Aadhaar and PAN cards are being detained and deported. BJP MLAs opposed the resolution.