Bangladesh’s Home Ministry has launched a search for 43-year-old Assam woman Mumtaz Begum, who was sent to Bangladesh on the intervening night of 13-14 June despite later being ordered by the Gauhati High Court to be brought back to India.
Top bureaucrats in Dhaka also said they were awaiting official communication from India on the matter.
Ziauddin Ahmed, additional secretary (Political and Immigration) at the Bangladesh Home Ministry, whose office deals with border enforcement, illegal crossings and cross-border deportations, told The Times of India that officials were trying to locate Mumtaz but had no information about her as of Sunday.
The matter was referred to police and other departments late on 27 September, days after the newspaper contacted Bangladeshi authorities.
On 3 September, the Gauhati High Court directed India’s Ministry of External Affairs to “endeavour to locate Mumtaz in Bangladesh and bring her back”.
The court also ordered the Assam government to pay Mumtaz’s husband, Mujammel Hoque, Rs 2 lakh in interim compensation, observing that “she was expelled without her husband or an adult family member being informed”.
The High Court found that Mumtaz had not been given an opportunity to challenge the Foreigners Tribunal’s decision declaring her a foreigner, describing it as a violation of democratic due process.
The court subsequently set aside the Tribunal’s decision declaring Mumtaz a foreigner.
The High Court also criticised the Tribunal for depriving her of the “opportunity to challenge the Foreigners Tribunal’s opinion before Gauhati HC”.
Emphasising that basic human rights extend to anyone in India, the court directed Assam Police to “ensure that declared foreign nationals are informed about Tribunal orders and that their adult family members are notified before they are moved outside their district”.
Search continues in Bangladesh
With no information about Mumtaz’s whereabouts in India, The Times of India said it contacted journalists, human rights activists, officials, and government and security establishment sources across Bangladesh, focusing on Sylhet division and adjoining districts, where she could have ended up.
A senior Dhaka-based businessman, who wished to remain anonymous, also joined the search and has been working with government and security contacts.
An appeal featuring Mumtaz’s photograph and identification details, including her Foreigners Identification Portal ID, was published in prominent Bengali newspapers on 22 September. Bangla daily Manab Kantha also published her photograph and reported on her family’s search.
Official efforts in Sylhet, however, have so far yielded no lead.
Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sarwar Murshed Shamim said police had “tried to locate Mumtaz within the metropolitan area but had not found her and were continuing the search”.
Mumtaz, from Assam’s Nagaon district, was declared a foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal. The Gauhati High Court later set aside the Tribunal’s ruling and ordered fresh consideration, citing deficiencies in its assessment of evidence, including her grandfather’s 1965 and 1970 voter-list records, her father’s 1977 voter-list record and voter ID, Gaonburah and Gaon Panchayat certificates, a school transfer certificate and land records.
Mumtaz appeared before the Tribunal on 30 May with her lawyer, after which police took her into custody. She was taken to Juria and Nagaon Sadar police stations, the Matia holding centre in Goalpara, and then the Eraligool holding centre in Sribhumi, where she remained from 4 to 13 June.
She was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) on 13 June and sent to Bangladesh the following day from Kalaincherra in Cachar, according to the BSF’s submission to the High Court.
Three months later, police, government authorities and civil society members are still trying to establish where she is.
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