On Sunday, 1 November, the Dhubri district administration launched a major eviction drive in Muslim-majority Gauripur’s Alamganj Part-IX. The administration reclaimed approximately 650 bighas (nearly 215 acres) of government khas land and demolished over 550 houses in the operation.
The drive, which began around 7:30 a.m., targeted the largest contiguous stretch of encroached government land, which was encroached by Muslims. The encroached land was identified in the Gauripur revenue circle.
Dhubri District Commissioner Dibakar Nath said the administration had issued notices to around 700 families occupying roughly 800 bighas, but 150 bighas were excluded from Sunday’s action because the occupants had approached the court and the matter was sub judice.
On the action site, the district commissioner said, “So far, we are focused on Alamganj Part-IX as the maximum khas land is there. There are a few cases in the High Court, and once those cases are resolved, we can accordingly move forward in other parts.” He added that nearly 80% of residents had voluntarily vacated the area after receiving notices, removing their belongings before the bulldozers arrived.
The operation was carried out with a substantial security deployment, including a large police contingent led by the Inspector General of Police (Law and Order), Akhilesh Kumar Singh, who visited the site to review the situation. The district administration deployed 50 to 60 excavators, tractor-trolleys, and other machinery, supported by thousands of civil and police personnel.
While official figures placed the number of affected families at around 550, some reports suggested that up to 750 families were removed from the 650-bigha area. The population evicted was estimated at around 4,000 to 4,500 people.
The drive is part of a broader campaign by the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government, which has carried out a series of evictions since coming to power in 2021.
According to reports, around 19,000 families, the majority of them Muslim, have been evicted from government land over the past decade. Sunday’s operation in Alamganj was preceded by the eviction of more than 1,100 Muslim families from forests across Nagaon, Hojai, and Golaghat districts just two weeks earlier.
The district administration said the operation was conducted after a three-month process involving show-cause notices, hearings, document verification, and a one-month window for residents to vacate.
