After demolishing Miya Muslim homes, the BJP government in the state has now issued notices to Indigenous Muslim families, sparking anger, fear and accusations of discrimination
GUWAHATI — The fear of bulldozers has once again gripped Assam’s Muslim community, this time extending to the state’s Indigenous Muslims. Despite repeated assurances by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that houses of indigenous Muslims would be spared, several families in different districts are now facing demolition notices.
In Guwahati’s Dhirenpara area, nearly 200 Indigenous Muslim families have been served with notices, leaving them anxious about their future. Similar notices have already reached 84 families in Golaghat’s Uriyamghat area and 16 families in Lakhimpur, with authorities branding their homes “illegal structures.”
Local Muslims, however, argue that the notices are part of a larger pattern of targeting Muslim communities. They say Hindu families living in the same neighbourhoods remain untouched.
The Assam Goria Parishad, an organisation representing the Indigenous Goria Muslim community, organised a massive public meeting in Dhirenpara to protest against the government’s actions. Many affected families attended the gathering, openly expressing their pain, betrayal, and growing fear.
Moinul Haque, president of the Assam Goria Parishad, addressed the meeting and directly appealed to the chief minister. “Today a big meeting of the Goria and Indigenous Muslim community was held. It was decided that we will again appeal to the chief minister to make arrangements for resettling the families whose houses have already been demolished in Golaghat and Lakhimpur by giving them land and homes at another place,” he said.
He added firmly: “The notices given to the Goria families of Kotabari, Kala Pani, Dhirenpara and Maligaon of Guwahati must be cancelled. These are our ancestral homes; we have nowhere else to go.”
The human cost of the demolitions was clear from testimonies of ordinary families. A Muslim woman from one of the affected neighbourhoods said with tears in her eyes: “The chief minister himself had said bulldozers will not be used on the houses of Indigenous Muslims, but the reality is the opposite. Our houses were demolished in Golaghat and Lakhimpur, and now we have received notices in Guwahati as well.”
Her plea was simple: “We demand the chief minister immediately cancel this notice and arrange new houses for those already made homeless.”
Other residents echoed her words, accusing the government of targeting them purely for their faith. “Hindu families living in the neighbourhood did not receive any notice, whereas we are also the sons of the soil of Assam,” said one angry local.
For many Indigenous Muslims, the issue is not only about losing their homes but also about the betrayal of promises made by the state government. Just weeks ago, Chief Minister Sarma had stated publicly that bulldozer actions would not be carried out against Indigenous Muslim groups like the Goria, Moria and Desi communities.
Now, with notices being handed out in Guwahati and beyond, those assurances feel hollow. “We feel unsafe in our own state. First the Miya Muslims were targeted, and now it is us. How long will this go on?” asked an elderly man at the protest meeting.
Community leaders have also accused the government of acting in defiance of Supreme Court guidelines which prohibit arbitrary demolitions without proper resettlement plans. The Indigenous Muslim gathering in Guwahati was marked by anger at what many called “bulldozer politics.”
“This is not about law or illegal land. This is about targeting Muslims while protecting others. If demolitions were fair, Hindu families in the same areas would have been served notices too. But they were not,” said a speaker from the Assam Goria Parishad.
With hundreds of Muslim families staring at homelessness, the crisis in Assam highlights the widening fault lines between the BJP government and the state’s Muslim population. For Indigenous Muslims who have lived in Assam for generations, the bulldozer threat feels like an attack on their very identity.
The Assam Goria Parishad and the affected families have demanded urgent intervention by the chief minister. Until then, fear and insecurity hang heavy over the Muslim community in Guwahati and across the state.
