The district administration in Assam's Sonitpur district ordered five people to leave India within 24 hours. Earlier, a tribunal in Assam had declared these five people as 'foreigners'. The state cabinet had approved the implementation of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, at the beginning of this year. This is the first time such a major step has been taken to apply that law and order someone to leave the country.
The order issued by the district administration stated that their presence in Assam or India as 'declared foreigners' is 'detrimental to the interests of the general public and the internal security of the state'.
They have been ordered to leave India via Dhubri or Shribhumi or South Salmara-Mankachar route within 24 hours of receiving this order. It has been announced that strict action will be taken if this directive is disobeyed.
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Notably, the Salmara-Mankachar route leads to Bangladesh.
This order was issued last Tuesday. However, after the order was issued, Sonitpur police reported that the five foreigners are currently 'absconding'. No one knows where they are at this moment. Senior Police Superintendent Barun Purkayastha said that the police are searching for them, and after finding them, action will be taken according to the law.
Sonitpur Deputy Commissioner Anand Kumar Das reported that orders have been issued in the names of five people from two families. They are all residents of Dhobokata village. Among them are four women and one man. A case was filed against them in the Foreigners Tribunal-2 in 2006. This year the tribunal declared them foreigners.
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Local residents claim that the remaining members of these two families had already left Dhobokata village earlier. A resident named Zakir Hussain reported that these 'declared foreigners' had come to live in their village about 19-20 years ago. But from the beginning, other villagers had suspicions about them. Therefore, most members of those two families had left the village at that time itself.
