As a bulldozer brought down multiple structures, a lone Muslim man stood watching in the field. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared the footage on November 8, describing the demolition as pre-Diwali “Ghar ki Safai” (cleaning the house), with a celebratory song playing in the background.

Since October this year, eviction operations across Nagaon, Golaghat, Hojai and Dhubri have resulted in hundreds of homes being demolished and thousands of families displaced. Sarma’s post, seemingly celebrating the demolitions, comes at a time when social media has been flooded with visuals of homes and mosques being brought down by bulldozers as affected families cry and helplessly watch.

According to the 2011 Census data, two of the four affected districts are Muslim-majority, with Dhubri having 79.67 per cent and Nagaon having 55.36 per cent Muslim population. Despite several news reports and video footage online suggesting that the primary population demographic affected by the recent demolition drive in the state are Muslims, the chief minister on November 9 insisted that the evictions are not based on religion. 

Addressing the media at Laharighat, he vowed to continue the eviction drive in order to protect reserved forest areas and reduce man-animal conflict. “You should support the genuine causes…If some land shark grabs 500 bighas of land, won’t the government carry out eviction? The government is always there for the genuine poor people…what’s happening is that some middlemen are usurping all lands…[there is] no point in blaming the government. The demolished land does not belong to poor people, it belongs to land sharks…we have no problem giving land to genuine poor people but they should not grab forest lands, tribal lands…there is no Hindu-Muslim in this, so don’t take every action through a communal lens,” he said.

Even if the demolitions are being carried out to clear alleged illegal encroachments, the chief minister’s manner of presenting these operations raises questions about the government’s response to the humanitarian consequences of the exercise. The demolition of homes and places of worship has left thousands of families displaced, many of whom say they have received neither alternative accommodation nor compensation. Against this backdrop, Sarma’s choice to add celebratory music to footage of bulldozers razing structures and describe the exercise as ‘Ghar ki Safai’ appears particularly insensitive to the suffering of those evicted.

‘Muslims were Denied Land Patta’

Guwahati-based lawyer Md. Emtiyaz Hussain, who is the president of All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU), visited several areas where the demolition drive was carried out. “The entire eviction drive is selective, targeting the Muslim community. We have gone to the site and found that many of these homes were allotted under the Basundhara scheme, where non-Patta lands are granted. Muslims and non-Muslims both applied for Pattas of their land in possession but in many instances, the applications of Muslims were denied despite them occupying those lands for decades. They were subsequently evicted. Even mosques have not been spared, multiple mosques have been razed to the ground,” he told Alt News.

“Thousands of families are without homes, and many children are now without schools. These people are now living in makeshift homes in the wilderness without pure drinking water, sanitation or basic amenities. Eviction drives have been going on in Assam for the past ten years, but it has reached an unprecedented peak under the Himanta Biswa Sarma administration. They have demolished these homes in Lutumari with the claim that forest land is being reclaimed, but everyone knows that this land will go to corporates,” he added.

Hussain further stated that many of the affected families had been settled in Nagaon’s Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest under the taungya system, which enabled them to live and work in the forest area. 

Devotees Offering Namaz in Debris of Mosques

On November 8, video footage showed devotees offering namaz in the debris of a demolished mosque in the Alamganj Part-IX village of the Dhubri district, a predominantly Muslim-populated area. A Times Now video report from November 3 shows the extent of demolition in the Alamganj Rangamati area, with several worshippers seen crying inside a broken mosque, women breaking down on camera, and thousands gathering around the demolished structure amid heavy police deployment. The report says that as part of the drive, over 600 families were evicted, and 650 bighas of land was cleared. 

80-year-old Ali Chand Fakir told Alt News that he has been living in Alamganj village since 1962, after his previous home in Goalpara was destroyed due to soil erosion by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. “The government had sent a notice a couple months ago, demanding that we vacate the land, but since we have been living here for decades, there was not enough time to relocate to a different place. I live with my wife, two sons, and their families. We are currently living in a makeshift home set up by one of my sons, which is not enough to house all of us. We are poor people…The government has not given us any alternate shelter or compensation for destroying our home,” he said.

On November 2, Sarma had similarly posted a video of himself interspersed with visuals of demolitions on X, accompanied with upbeat music and a caption which read: “Encroachers in Dhubri — It’s done bro! I’ve told you so many times that Assam’s land is for its people, not for encroachers. But some people probably don’t want to understand my words. For them, we present — JCBs. The Guaranteed Formula for Removing Encroachments!”

News outlet The Scroll reported that on November 1 over 4,000 families were displaced in Alamganj Part-IX village. This report specified that the homes of over 640 Bengali Muslim families were destroyed across 650 bighas. Notices had been served to residents occupying 800 bighas and the remaining 150 bighas were excluded from the operation because of pending court cases, Dhubri district commissioner Dibakar Nath told The Scroll. The administration reportedly deployed around 50 excavators, along with tractor-trolleys and a large police contingent. 

More to Come, Says Sarma

Even as the administration argued that the demolition drive was being carried out to remove illegal encroachments by people who allegedly have built structures despite possessing land elsewhere, several videos of distressed families in Dhubri flooded social media following the eviction drive. Subsequently, international news outlet Al Jazeera reported the figure of 4,000 families being evicted, to which Sarma responded with a tweet announcing, “More to come”.

Another eviction drive was carried out in Lakhimpur district by the revenue department on November 6. Local media outlet Northeast Now reported that the district administration demolished 32 structures at Dharmapur Saturday Weekly Haat, under Bihpuria Revenue Circle. Most of these buildings housed commercial shops while one residential building was also demolished. 

The report stated that approximately three bighas of government land were cleared in the presence of police and security personnel. The administration claimed that prior notices had been issued and that several occupants had voluntarily removed their structures ahead of the drive, which was conducted “peacefully” in cooperation with locals, the report added.

‘Selective Targeting of Muslims’

Speaking to Alt News, Assam-based lawyer and state Congress spokesperson Aman Wadud said, “In Assam, there are many people who are landless. If you check, the government’s own data says that since 1950, 7 per cent of Assam’s landmass has been eroded by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. So, it is quite obvious that a lot of people have lost their land, and this includes people from all religions. But this government is very selectively evicting people who profess a Muslim faith. There is no doubt that Hindus and tribals have been evicted but the number of Muslims displaced is disproportionately higher.”

“This is visible from the videos circulating on social media…where we are only seeing Muslims crying around their broken homes and mosques. The chief minister himself has been routinely reposting videos of Muslim families crying and howling…celebrating the ongoing demolitions. He will never celebrate when people from other faiths are crying on camera,” he added.

“They were given the licence to live and work in the forest land back in the 1970s. Our investigation revealed that most of those evicted from Lutumari are Bengali-speaking Muslims while Hindus and tribals were allowed to stay. Out of 300 families, 177 families were evicted, all of whom are Bengali-speaking Muslims,” he said, adding that AAMSU is planning a protest against the eviction drives in Delhi on November 14.

Earlier in October, the Assam administration carried out simultaneous drives across Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat, clearing more than 300 hectares of land across reserve forests. On October 17, The Scroll reported that a total of 547 families were evicted, most of whom were Bengali-speaking Muslims. The next day on October 18, the operation continued in Nagaon’s Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest, where the homes of more than 600 Muslim families were demolished.

The report stated that four villages in the Lutumari area — Kandarpa Longjap, Padumoni, Hatijur and No. 9 Kheroni — had been inhabited for decades. Locals told The Scroll that their families had been settled there by the government in 1974 while some residents said their forefathers had been landless agricultural workers employed by the Forest Department. Over 10 mosques, some over 50 years old, were also reportedly demolished.

House Demolished, Family Separated

Speaking to Alt News, 46-year-old Abdul Noor, whose house in Lutumari was demolished, said the government sent an eviction notice in December last year, which he and his family challenged in Gauhati high court. “We have been living in the Lutumari forest area and working as plantation workers appointed by the forest dpartment since 1974. The land was lawfully allotted to us under the taungya system and yet we were labelled as illegal encroachers. However, the high court did not admit our appeal, arguing that this land belongs to the forestdepartment,” he said. 

“We were a family of 10 living in Lutumari, after our house was destroyed, we have all been separated and have taken shelter with different relatives. The government has not relocated us or offered us an alternate job to bear the costs of rebuilding a house. All of us who were settled under the taungya system and have now been displaced, are considering taking the matter to the Supreme Court,” he added. 

The recent eviction drive forms part of the Assam government’s hardline approach against what they deem illegal encroachments. Research by The New Humanitarian published in March this year reports that in between May 2021 and 2026, the Assam administration demolished over 22,000 homes, displacing over 20,000 families in at least 33 documented eviction drives.