By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Razia Begum, a resident of Barpetta in Assam, broke down while narrating trauma and torture, she sustained at the hands of Delhi police during her stay in Delhi since last 24 years. Few days back when the Rohini police picked her daughter Rani, the terrible memories of 15 years earlier, haunted Razia back and she couldn’t help crying before this correspondent.
Razia’s only son, Abdur Razzaque committed suicide in 2006, thanks to the weekly harassment by Delhi police on the name of being illegal Bangladeshis and a couple of other problem; but she claimed that police showed his suicide as a result of depression and drugs.
Razia, victim of police terror broke down while narrating her story
Razia stays in Taimoor Nagar Pahadi, the shanty town populated by Bengali speaking people from Assam. Almost every Assami Muslim living in this slum has been picked up once, twice or in some cases thrice. Some of them have also been deported to Bangladesh. Being picked by the city police comes natural to them. It’s as if they have accepted that they are illegal “Bangladeshis” making the issue very much a part and parcel their mental landscape.
“They come every week here and pick one or the other from us, saying that you are a Bangladeshi. Then they torture us in police stations and ask for money. If some body manages to fulfill their demands then s/he lives here otherwise they pack him/her up and deport to Bangladesh,” added Razia who had all the evidences to prove her Indian citizenship including her voter ID card from Delhi, ration card, and bank account among others.
Money minting business
Interestingly Delhi police considers areas like Taimoor Nagar as money minting places. Every police station of Delhi police visits this area to pick people up and if possible take money otherwise deport them back to Bangladesh.
“Some times its Rohini police, some times it’s the police from Jamia Nagar police station and some times its RK Puram police; every body comes here and pick people up. People from this area are also picked up after any blast in Delhi,” added Mujtaba who had been picked up twice till now and was let off in lieu of bribe money.
Stigma of being “Bangladeshi”
“No, I can’t run away from the stigma of being called a ‘Bangladeshi’. After taking birth in an Assami Muslim family, this is some thing which will come back again to haunt me. Let’s just see if it comes a bit late,” said Rani who was forcibly taken by the Rohini police but was released after she paid them the bribe of 1750, in spite of having every documentary evidence to prove her genuine Indian citizenship.
“No body cares about what happens to us- poor people. It doesn’t matter whether we die or live,” added Razia sitting in the small room of hers which was her bedroom, kitchen and living room.
Razia’s narrative of torture is as much the story of almost every resident of this slum as much it is of her struggle to survive in Delhi at any cost after she left Barpetta 24 years back in search of livelihood.
United in torture- from L to R, Sasar Shaikh, Mujtaba, Mehrun and Rani
Meet Firoza Begum, who could hardly speak Hindi but whatever little Hindi she spoke betrayed the elements of pain and haunted memories from the time when she was deported to Bangladesh by the Delhi police around two years back.
“I was lost in Bangladesh because I didn’t know where to go because I am not a Bangladeshi. I am very much an Indian,” added Firoza who begged on roads in Bangladesh to collect the money so that she could come back to her home in India.
Harassment, the biggest problem
Ask these people their about list of problems and they will tell you that harassment by Delhi police on day to day basis, is the only problem which has made their life eventually hell; in spite of them having their fair share of problems which include lack of employment, poverty, absence of drinking water in the area, electricity and lots of other things.
Even Shakeel Ahmad Imam of the local mosque, was not optimistic about any solution to this problem unless there were radical change in the approach of the police administration. There had been many instances where he found regular visitors of the mosque suddenly disappeared but he didn’t need to ask any body what happened to him/her because he knew that they were deported to Bangladesh.
Narrow lanes and narrow future- a view of life of life in Taimoor Nagar Pahadi
There are “illegal Bangladeshis”
Its not that there are no illegal Bangladeshi migrants; the greater cause of worry should be that poor and vulnerable people who have every evidence to prove their Indian citizenship are exploited and unnecessarily punished without any fault of theirs.
In fact these people who talked to TwoCircles.net claimed that there are indeed illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in the shanty town but they became the informers of police and falsely implicate genuine Indian citizens to save their own skin; in lieu they get their share of the money which Delhi police exploits from helpless and poor people after harassing them for being “illegal Bangladeshi.”
The tragedy of these people’s fate is that they don’t know when this trend of unnecessary harassment will end.