Last week a gruesome case of sexual assault and murder was reported from the Matigara locality in the Siliguri subdivision of West Bengal. A youth named Mohammad Abbas had brutally bludgeoned a minor Hindu Gorkha girl to death. The Matigara police and the Special Operations Group (SOG) launched a manhunt and arrested Mohammed Abbas from his hideout in the Lenin Colony of Siliguri.

The tragedy instilled a great amount of rage among the locals. North Bengal was completely overrun by protests. Members of the VHP called for a bandh in Siliguri whereas another one was observed across the hills of North Bengal.

Though the police arrested Mohammad Abbas, the heinous crime threw the spotlight on the increasing crime rate in Siliguri’s Lenin Colony better known as ‘Chhota (mini) Pakistan’.

Lenin Colony is the name of a grim hamlet of roughly 300 huts and shanties on the western banks of the Balasan River, which runs through the western portion of Siliguri, the largest city in North Bengal. No reward for figuring out that the former Marxist rulers of Bengal gave it that name. However, the area is now more popularly known as “Chhota Pakistan.”

This region is called ‘Chhota (mini) Pakistan’ as it has over the years, risen to become a safe haven for criminals. Here, incidents like theft, burglary, chain-snatching, railway wagon breaking, rape, murder, drug peddling, human trafficking and various other anti-social activities are carried out with impunity. Moreover, it has become a hub of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Rohingyas. Despite the fact that the police have apprehended numerous offenders from this neighbourhood in recent years, criminal activity remains unrelenting here.

Chhota Pakistan is a haven for criminals, drug dealers, human traffickers and all sorts of lawbreakers

Several local residents spoke to Swarajya about the security threat posed to them by the influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingya in the Lenin Colony and nearby neighbourhood. Bimal Nag, a resident of Paul Para was quoted by Swarajya as saying, “This settlement grew by leaps and bounds over the last eight to ten years. It was all a barren land adjoining a tea estate. We started noticing some Muslim families, all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, settling down there sometime around 2008 or 2009. And over the past eight to nine years, more and more Muslim families started settling down there.”

Paul Para is on the northern side of National Highway 10 and at a stone’s throw away distance from ‘Chhota Pakistan’.

“It (Chhota Pakistan) is a haven for criminals, infested with drug dealers, human traffickers and all sorts of lawbreakers. We can make out from their dialect that they are all Bangladeshis. But all of them have rational cards and Aadhar cards and enjoy the protection of ruling party politicians and the police,” said Archana Banik, a housewife who stays near Kali Mandir on Nivedita Sarani which is also across the highway from ‘Chhota Pakistan’. 

Gobinda Pal, owner of a shop selling pots and planters on NH 10, a little distance away from ‘Chhota Pakistan’ was also quoted as saying, “Even police don’t enter the area if they are not sufficient in numbers and armed. The criminals there are said to possess illegal arms and are quite ferocious.”

Muslims speak in a distinctive Bangladeshi dialect

According to the online news portal Swarajya, it is readily apparent from their dialect that the majority of local Muslims living in Siliguri’s Lenin Colony are either Rohingyas or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

It reads that almost 300 families of ‘Chhota Pakistan’ speak in a distinctive Bangladeshi dialect, while the Rohingyas speak in their distinct dialect that bears a close resemblance to Chatgaiya, the dialect of Chittagong, a province in northeastern Bangladesh that is next to the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

Although they attempt to speak ‘proper’ Bengali—the dialect of Nadia is regarded as shudh or pure Bengali—they commonly revert to Bangladeshi dialects, particularly the Rangpuri and Rajshahi dialects.

This is due to the fact that the majority of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who have landed in North Bengal come from the northwest Bangladeshi divisions of Rangpur and Rajshahi, which border North Bengal.

‘Earlier documents lost due to floods’: Common excuse given by most such illegal immigrants

According to the Swarajya report, a few “Chhota Pakistan” inhabitants reportedly consented to answer their journalist’s questions. They all acknowledged that the hamlet was recently established and that they had moved to the area only a few years ago. They, however, firmly denied being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Our farmland and homestead land in Malda was washed away and we had nowhere to go. So we came and settled down here,” Manowara Bibi (35), a shanty dweller who operates a small store selling goods like tea, cigarettes, gutka, and other products was quoted by the news portal as saying.

“People label us as Bangladeshis, but we are all Indians,” she lambasted as she showed an Aadhar card issued in 2020.

Manowara Bibi, a mother of six, casually responds when asked why she only filed for and received her Aadhar card three years ago: “All our documents and possessions got washed away during the floods in Malda in 2018.”

All people of “Chhota Pakistan” frequently recite this refrain about losing earlier documents as a result of floods. They all assert to be displaced due to the climate from the districts of Malda and North and South Dinajpur.

But if you question them about the towns or villages in those districts from which they originated, they, somehow,l immediately become hostile.

Nurul Azzam, a 30-year-old assistant who works at a small vehicle repair workshop close to Bagdogra Airport, when asked the same question, claimed that because of memory loss, he was unable to recall the name of his original village in Dinajpur.

When questioned about the dialect he uses, the Rohingya/Chittagong native claimed that one of his neighbours in the Dinajpur area where he grew up immigrated from Chittagong sometime in the 1940s, from whom he picked it up.

The report further reads that when he was further prodded he turned quite aggressive and combative.

I have cards,” Azzam, who has two wives and seven children from them, said. But when he was asked to show the ‘cards’ (by which he meant Aadhaar, ration and voter ID), he shouted, “Go away. I have work to do.”

“I voted two years ago (in the Assembly elections) and will vote again next year,” Azzam added mockingly.

The Swarajya journalist again attempted to quiz him by asking, “What are next year’s elections about?” This riled up Azzam who reportedly murmured some expletives in Chatgaiya (the dialect of Chittagong that’s very close to the dialect of Rohingyas) and turned away.

Illegal immigrants radicalised by TMC-backed clerics

According to Swarajya, there are two makeshift mosques in Lenin Colony and the clerics there are reportedly illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. It is known that these preachers indoctrinate immigrants with a conservative and radical version of Islam.

The clerics, who have complete authority over the neighbourhood, are apparently now close to some Trinamool Congress leaders there. They were previously patronized by the CPI(M).

These clerics are in charge of ensuring that all residents of “Chhota Pakistan” vote for the ruling party in each and every election. In return, they receive tons of favours and gifts. One such cleric reportedly lives in a two-story house, owns a motorcycle, and manages a convenience store close to Shiv Mandir More in Siliguri.

The ‘poverty’ of his fellow Muslims in ‘Chhota Pakistan’ stands in stark contrast to his ‘prosperity’.

The local Muslims here are engaged in minimal jobs like daily labourers, rickshaw pullers, helpers in bicycle and tire repair shops, rag pickers, etc. that provide them with just enough money to sustain themselves.

The desperation to earn more clubbed with the police and the political favouritism they receive encourage them to turn to crime.

‘Chhota Pakistan’ is widely known to be a hub of drug peddlers. The police have raided the area many times and seized drugs like marijuana, but the peddling continues nonetheless.

Moreover, there are claims that some of the locals participate in human trafficking. Many criminals who operate in other parts of the city and even the neighbourhood can find refuge in “Chhota Pakistan.”

Given the notoriety that “Chhota Pakistan” has acquired, the BJP is now demanding that there should be a thorough background check of members of all 300 or so families living in the area and the ones who are found to be illegal immigrants should be deported.

However, the ruling Trinamool Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee has vehemently objected to the moniker given to Lenin Colony. It also has been categorically rejecting the demands being raised by the BJP party. “There are no illegal immigrants in Lenin Colony. All of them are Indians,” asserted Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb. 

‘Chhota Pakistan’ will continue to be protected because of the support of the ruling party, and it will only attract more illegal immigrants, who represent a critical vote base for the Trinamool Congress. The report suggests that the area has been growing, and an ‘annexe’ of the colony has started coming up on the opposite bank (the right or eastern bank) of the Balasun River adjoining the Matigara tea estate. And as a result, the city’s crime graph will inevitably shift to the north. However, the politicians in power don’t care about that much because their sole priority is winning the upcoming elections.

Chhota Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas rapes and bludgeon minor to death

On Monday (August 11), the police arrested a 22 year-old-man named Mohammed Abbas in connection to the gruesome murder of a minor girl. The incident took place in Matigara in the Siliguri subdivision of West Bengal.

As per reports, the victim (name withheld) was attacked by Abbas while she was returning home from school. The accused took the underage girl inside an abandoned house at Rabindrapally and allegedly attempted to rape her.

When she resisted, he smashed her face with a brick. The locals heard her screams and found the victim, lying in a pool of blood, wearing the school uniform. She breathed her last soon after.

BJP demands CBI inquiry

Condemning the incident that took place last week, Darjeeling Lok Sabha MP Raju Bista had demanded a CBI enquiry into the heinous crime. He lambasted the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal saying that such crimes by residents of ‘Chhota Pakistan’ are the direct result of the “shelter and support provided to illegal immigrants and criminal elements in North Bengal by the state government”. 

“Our children and our womenfolk are not safe anymore because of the threat posed by illegal immigrants who are provided shelter and support by the ruling party for its narrow political ends,” said Bista. 

“Mamata Banerjee says she won’t allow an exercise to update the NRC to be conducted in Bengal. That encourages more illegal immigration from Bangladesh and also gives immunity to criminal elements among these immigrants,” Bista added. 

Demographic change in North Bengal

Notably, due to a significant influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh over the past few decades, the city’s demographics, as well as those of most of North Bengal, have altered.

Nearly 10% of the people in the city are Muslims, the bulk of whom are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and who are the majority in several parts of the area.

Muslims made up only approximately 3% of Siliguri’s population until a few decades ago. In recent decades, a large number of districts in North Bengal, notably those near important defence facilities, have shifted to a predominantly Muslim population.