Assam Government to Deport Victims of Islamist Terror

For several years, I have been traveling around West Bengal, India, in an effort to gather evidence about the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus and bring that evidence to human rights supporters in the United States Congress and Senate. The Bangladeshi Hindu population has fallen from just under a fifth of the Bangladeshi people at independence in 1971, to eight percent or less today. Contrary to apologists, there has been no corresponding increase in the Hindu share of West Bengal--the Indian state that borders Bangladesh and shares its ethnicity. In fact, the Hindu proportion of West Bengal has fallen during that time as well.

While we receive a steady stream of reported atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh (reports which we investigate and almost always verify) and West Bengal; we are now receiving new reports from the neighboring Indian state of Assam, which stretches along Bangladesh's northern border. For years, and especially during times of unrest in Bangladesh, Hindus have fled to Assam for safe haven. In fact, the Assam Supreme Court has issued rulings of special protection for them.

Now, however, the Assamese government has begun issuing orders of eviction to many of these Hindus, all victims of Islamist (and Islamist fellow travelers) atrocity. It is doing this contemptuously of the longstanding supreme court rulings. It has not, by the way, issued any such orders to the growing number of Muslims now in the state. These infiltrators are attempting to replicate the same demographic shift in Assam as we are seeing in West Bengal.

Several local groups are forming to stop this double victimization. One of them, The Protection Forum for Bengali Hindus of Assam, has asked us to join them in this fight; and we will be standing with them in a matter of months. Some have also appealed to the national Indian government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But it is clear that the only thing with a chance of stopping this is the pressure that comes from shining a light on these actions and forcing the world to confront what is happening to these perpetually victimized people before it is too late.

That has become one of our goals, and it is a major aim of our next trip to the region. If you want to help, contact Dr. Richard Benkin at drrbenkin@comcast.net.