Harassment of Muslim citizens in Gujarat under the label of 'Bangladeshi'!

The state police have arrested 6,500 Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat on suspicion of being Bangladeshi. They claim that the detainees were living illegally and many had fake identity cards. However, an investigation by the international media outlet BBC says that most of them are Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims—residents of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat—who have valid identity cards.

In this operation conducted in Ahmedabad and Surat, not only arrests were made, but many homes were bulldozed in the Muslim-dominated Chandola Lake area. This has caused extreme anxiety and panic among local Muslims.

Human rights organizations and the media have called this illegal harassment and serious human rights violations. The international human rights organization Amnesty International said in a statement, "Targeting citizens in groups based on ethnic and religious identity is a clear violation of human rights."

The UN Human Rights Commission also said that it is monitoring the issue. However, the Indian central government has not yet given any official response on the matter.

Residents of the Chandola area said that their houses were demolished without any notice or legal process.

An elderly local Muslim citizen said, “We are Indian citizens, we have voter ID, Aadhaar card, everything. Yet we are being made into Bangladeshis and driven away.”