Assam evicts over 1,100 Muslim families in two-day demolition drive 

Millat Times Desk

19 October 2026 (Publish: 07:37 AM IST)

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More than 1,100 Muslim families were evicted during a two-day demolition drive in Assam, with authorities citing alleged encroachment on government and forest land, media reports said.

The Assam government demolished the homes of more than 600 Muslim families in the Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest in Nagaon district on Sunday. The action marked the second day of the eviction drive.

On Saturday, 547 families were evicted across three districts: 336 in Nagaon, 59 in Golaghat and 152 in Hojai. The operation was conducted amid heavy security, with most of those affected being Bengali Muslims, Scroll reported.

In Lutumari, affected families had reportedly lived on more than 300 hectares of reserve forest land for decades. Residents disputed the administration’s claims of encroachment, saying their families had been settled on the land by the government.

“We were settled by the government in 1974,” Abdul Noor, a 44-year-old resident whose home was demolished on Sunday, told Scroll. He said around 300 landless families had been allotted four bighas of land each.

Noor also said the residents had challenged the eviction in the Gauhati High Court but did not receive relief. According to him, more than 10 mosques, some over 50 years old, were also demolished during the drive.

In June, the All India Union of Forest Working People urged the Assam government to halt the planned eviction in Lutumari Longjap Reserve Forest. The organisation argued that residents of four villages, Kandarpa Longjap, Padumoni, Hatijur and No. 9 Kheroni, had been settled under the colonial-era taungya system of forest management and should not be treated as ordinary encroachers.

Under the taungya system, communities cultivated food crops alongside commercially valuable trees while working for the Forest Department. Introduced during British rule in the 19th century, the system was subsequently used in parts of Assam.

The latest eviction drive comes amid a wider series of displacement operations in the state. According to data compiled by Scroll from the state Revenue and Disaster Management Department and district authorities, around 19,000 families, the majority of them Muslim, have been evicted from government land during the BJP’s decade in power in Assam.