Hakimpur (Bengal-Bangladesh border): It is 5.30 in the morning on June 14. Though the sky is clear, the sun has yet to fully rise. The marketplace remains shuttered and the village is only beginning to stir.One by one, passengers step down from a private bus at Hakimpur. Among them are women carrying infants in their arms, children clutching their mother’s hands, and elderly men and women, clutching a bag or two. There are about 15. All look harried and it is clear that they have spent a sleepless night. The moment they get off the bus, their eyes drift towards a group of Border Security Force (BSF) personnel standing nearby. The families gather under the shade of several trees, sitting silently.People at Hakimpur, arriving to be ‘pushed back’ into Bangladesh. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Bengal, news has spread among migrant workers across Bengal that they are to be rounded up and sent into Bangladesh.Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said a day ago that 10,000 “illegal infiltrators” have been sent to Bangladesh and another 1,800 were waiting in 12 holding centres to be sent back. The BJP has long maintained that undocumented Bangladeshi migrants living in the state should be deported. After coming to power in West Bengal, the party has reiterated its policy of “detect, delete, and deport” to remove those identified as illegal entrants from the country. CM Adhikari has said that suspected individuals would not necessarily be produced in courts but would instead be handed over directly to the BSF for deportation. However, there is little clarity on what the grounds of such “detection” are.People arrive at Hakimpur, from where they will make the journey to a holding centre, to eventually be ‘pushed back’ into Bangladesh. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.The campaign, preceded by repeated claims that large numbers of Bangladeshi migrants had entered the state over the years, gained ground from the middle of May. The news that workers from Bangladesh are being caught and sent back has spread through phones and WhatsApp messages and Reels have created an atmosphere of utmost fear across Bengal. This has, in turn, led to a situation where several have been turning up at the borders of their own volition to await a fate they do not know. §Not one person who had gathered at the nondescript border village knows anyone there. They know only one thing: that the name of this place is “Hakimpur.” With this knowledge alone, they have boarded trains and buses, travelling here from different corners of Bengal. Their destination, they have been told, is Bangladesh. Hakimpur is a border village in Swarupnagar block under Basirhat Subdivision of North 24 Parganas district of Bengal. It lies along the India-Bangladesh border.Over the past few weeks, this village has played host to people who have a single word on their lips, “pushback.” The term is used to describe the physical pushing of people into Bangladesh. In the past year or so, from across the country, Bengali-speaking Muslim individuals have been rounded up and brought to several border villages, to be pushed into Bangladesh. Also read: Pushed into Bangladesh, Brought Back Without her Husband, Sunali Khatun Now Lives in SqualorMany who had been rounded up were later found to have Aadhaar cards and other documents that are testament to their legitimate existence in India. Many others have no documentation that can establish them as Indian citizens and are bonafide Bangladeshis – having crossed the border in search of work at a time when such a crossing was commonplace. But what all of them lack is documentation that can prove that they are citizens of Bangladesh. Bangladesh, therefore, refuses to accept many of these individuals through this process, which is known as “push in” in Dhaka. This often creates a situation in which these men and women are bracketed in no man’s land, unable to live in India or in Bangladesh, with just uncertainty in the horizon. All are poor, without even the basics to survive.Rahima Khatun with her son and possessions, among those waiting to be sent to Bangladesh in Hakimpur. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Rahima Khatun, 22, says that she had arrived in India, crossing the border, because there was no work for her in Bangladesh. “I want my son, elderly father, and my mentally ill mother to survive. We came to India driven by hunger. We do not have any documents. Now we are being told that we will be sent back to Bangladesh,” says Rahima. Her son is two years old and clutches on to his mother tightly. Rahima says that her family hails from a village called Kashibari in Bangladesh. The small home they once had was destroyed in a storm and her husband abandoned her while she was pregnant, Rahima says.In India, Rahima says, she found work as a daily-wage labourer at a warehouse in the Dum Dum area of North 24 Pargana. The earnings were meagre, but they were enough to keep her family of four fed.Sitting beside her, her father, Abdul Haque, speaks of a life defined by hardship and uncertainty. The toes on Abdul Haque’s right foot are bloodied and appear infected. Pointing to his swollen and discoloured foot, he says, “The pain is unbearable.”“Whenever it becomes too much to bear, I pour cold water over it. That is all I can do,” adds Abdul. Abdul Haque, Rahima Khatun’s father, waits at Hakimpur. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Abdul survived on daily wage work and when he could not find work there, he survived by begging, he says. “We have no papers to prove that we belong to Bangladesh. We came here only because we were desperate for food and work. We never imagined that one day our identity would depend on documents we did not have the means or foresight to furnish,” he says. A short distance away, Reshma Bibi sits quietly beside her son. Her family comes from the Satkhira district of Bangladesh, she says. “In India, I worked as a sweeper in residential apartment buildings in the Atghara area of Kolkata. Now the government says that we are illegal entrants and that we will be sent back to Bangladesh,” she says. She pauses and adds that she does not know what to do next. “I don’t even know whether we will actually make it to Bangladesh.”Reshma Bibi and her son at Hakimpur, waiting to be pushed into Bangladesh. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Many people gathered here said they had heard that Bangladeshi nationals living in India were being identified for deportation. Many had also learnt of how Bengali-speaking Muslim people, irrespective of whether they are from India or Bangladesh, were being held across India and pushed into Bangladesh. Fear has spread rapidly, to the point where many have seen fit to submit themselves to an uncertain process without any idea of what it holds for them. Young Kabir Sheikh says that he used to work at a food stall near the Dum Dum railway station, where hawkers were evicted a few days ago. “At midnight, I saw shops being demolished before my eyes. I used to stay there. That was when I realised that people like us could also be forced out at any time,” he says. Sheikh used to stay near the station itself. Like many others, he says he is originally from the Satkhira district in Bangladesh.“We are not thieves or criminals, we survived through hard labour,” he adds.A man carries his bags as he arrives at Hakimpur. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Many had travelled long distances to this village to submit themselves to the process, driven by anxiety of being taken by police. Some said they had boarded the 3.30 am train from Sealdah to Bongaon, got off at Machlandapur station, and then taken a bus to Hakimpur, hoping to learn what lay ahead for them and their families.By late morning, several buses were lined up along the road at Hakimpur. Police personnel from the Swarupnagar police station stood nearby, while a camp of the BSF operated only a short distance away.Residents of the area recall that only a few days earlier, police and BSF personnel had reportedly been stationed there with laptops, recording the names and details of people arriving from the various locations. That registration process was no longer visible on the day of reporting. Around noon, approximately 15 people who had gathered at Hakimpur are herded into a bus. This reporter learns that they are to be transported nearly 20 kilometres away to the “Pather Sathi (friend of the road)” shelter in Tentulia. At the Tentulia centre, one by one, the weary families disappear through the gates. Most keep their heads down, avoiding eye contact. Moments later, the gates are shut.The Tentulia centre where families waiting to the ‘pushed back’ are housed. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.This centre has not been designated a ‘detention centre’, but its conditions are similar to imprisonment. No visitors including journalists are allowed inside. Inside is the shelter officer-in-charge (OC) of Swarupnagar Police Station, Shirshendu Patti. Speaking to this reporter, he makes it clear that once individuals entered the shelter, they effectively came under police custody.“Forget meeting them,” he says. “No one is allowed to enter beyond the gate.”When asked as to what would happen to the people being housed there and whether they would eventually be handed over to BSF, the OC says he had no information on the matter. That response raises further questions. Over the previous seven days, large numbers of people had reportedly been brought to the same shelter home, say locals. Where were they now? Had they all been sent across the border to Bangladesh? “No,” comes the reply. When asked if they were still in the shelter, the policeman does not respond. When The Wire sought an answer from Basirhat District Superintendent of Police (SP), Alaknanda Bhowal on June 16, she says that more than 1,400 people have arrived at Hakimpur so far.Asked how many had ultimately been sent across the border into Bangladesh, the SP declines to provide a figure. “That cannot be disclosed,” she says.There is thus no public data available on the count of people coming, staying or going out from these shelters.Families who have arrived at Hakimpur, waiting to be pushed into Bangladesh. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Bhowal adds that those staying at the shelter are being provided with food, medical care and other essential services through coordinated efforts between the civil administration and the police.The people gathering near the border are not attempting to evade the authorities but the opposite. In return, they are going to be ‘pushed back’ by a system that refuses to disclose the methods of the process. And what exactly does a ‘pushback’ operation look like on the ground? To find out, this reporter returns once again to Hakimpur.Pushback countryWhen BSF personnel stationed at Hakimpur are asked about the ongoing pushbacks, a jawan volunteeres his account on the condition of anonymity. “We cannot say how many people have pushed back. The state police will provide those figures,” he says. He then adds that apart from Hakimpur, people were being “escorted towards the Bangladesh border” through other relatively flat stretches of land like Tarali, Asi Shikari and Amudiha. Not all these routes are fenced. As a result, those being pushed back are often left at the ‘Zero Point’ along the border. The Swarupnagar Police Station alone has jurisdiction over 24 kilometres of border.Across the border, however, the situation has become increasingly uncertain. While some people managed to cross into Bangladesh in May, that is no longer possible now, as noted near the beginning of this report. According to local accounts, Bangladesh authorities are unwilling to accept many of those arriving from India. Shyamsuddin Mondal, a resident of the area, tells this reporter that announcements are being made over loudspeakers by the Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB), urging local residents to prevent the entry of people coming from India. Border residents there, he claims, often stand guard with sticks and iron rods to stop them crossing in. He says to The Wire, “The human toll is visible on the faces of those stranded at the frontier. Men, women and children arrive exhausted, their faces drained of colour, only to spend hours waiting in uncertainty, often without food or water, under the open sky.”Mondal wonders what becomes of people who appear to spend almost full days waiting in the land between the two countries. Especially since until a few years ago, the reality of these villages was very different.The Sonai River at Uttarpara, Hakimpur, along the India-Bangladesh border. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.The Bhadiali village of Bangladesh. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.In the Uttarpara area of Hakimpur village flows the ancient Sonai river, the natural boundary between India and Bangladesh. On the western bank lies Bhadiyali village in Bangladesh’s Satkhira district. Just a few years ago, boats regularly plied these waters. Fishermen from both countries cast their nets in the river, while families crossed over to visit relatives and friends during festivals and social occasions.Today, however, the Sonai presents a different picture. Neither the BSF nor the BGB has cleared the thick blanket of water hyacinth that now chokes the river. From the Indian bank, Bhadiali village in Bangladesh can be seen barely a hundred feet away. The call to prayer drifts across the river.“There was a time when we fished in this river and bathed in its water. People from the other side would come here, and we would visit them as well. Now everything has stopped,” say Khadija Bibi and Marjina Bibi, and others, who had gathered by the river on a visit.Khadija Bibi and her relatives gather on the banks of the Sonai River, revisiting memories. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.“The people who came from across the border were poor labourers. There was little work available there, so they came here to earn a living. They were not thieves or criminals,” Khadija Bibi says.Even today, many residents gather by the riverbank, reminiscing about a past when the border was less a barrier than a bridge between two communities whose lives, livelihoods and memories flowed together like the waters of the Sonai.Land politicsMeanwhile, the government has announced that it is acquiring land for the construction of border fences. According to residents, the proposed alignment is triggering fears of large-scale displacement and the loss of agricultural livelihoods. “Under international norms, the fencing is supposed to be constructed beyond a certain distance from the border. But now it is reportedly extending much further inland,” says Rakib Shaikhaji, a retired primary school teacher from Tentulia.According to him, local residents have been told that compensation will be provided only for the land required for the fencing road itself, while compensation for large stretches of additional land that may be acquired remains uncertain.“Several temples, mosques, the Hakimpur high school, seven primary schools and the agricultural land of four entire villages could be affected just here,” says Shaikhaji.Residents fear that once the fencing is completed, their movement on their own land will come under strict regulation. Farmers cultivating fields beyond the fence would have to register their movement and cattle accompanying them, with the BSF. Shaikhaji further claims that there is a rumour that crops exceeding four feet in height would not be permitted in the fenced zone. The Wire could not independently confirm this. But such restrictions could effectively end jute cultivation, one of the region’s principal crops and vital source of income for thousands of farming families.Gates have reportedly been installed in villages such as Nabatkati, Kholsi, Dabila, and Sonpur of Swarupnagar block. Villagers have been told by the BSF that gates will be opened only at designated hours, meaning that they may be unable to access their own field and property even in cases of urgent need.The issue has sparked growing anger. Only a few days ago, at Hakimpur, villagers organised protest meetings against the proposed land acquisition and fencing restrictions.Villagers in Hakimpur stage a protest against the alleged acquisition of their land by the BSF for a border fencing project. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.More villagers in Hakimpur at the protest. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Safikul Sardar, an Indian citizen who lives at Hakimpur and cultivates land there, tells this reporter that this current predicament feels like the Partition of Bengal. “The idea of India has been changing since the last decade. We thought, okay, it’s happening in UP, in Gujarat, we are safe. Little did we know, one day we will need government permission to access our own land. We read about partition in books, where people lost the right to their land, this feels like that. But maybe our plight won’t be recorded in history books. Our fight is for our rights only – the right to roam, and the right to live,” he says.