Family listed in NRC, Assam’s Halima in detention for 9 years

DHING (ASSAM): Every time Abul Kasem goes to the Kokrajhar central jail, one of the cops who is on duty jokes with him. “How is it that you are an Indian citizen and your daughter is a Bangladeshi,” Kasem, a 66-year-old farmer said recalling the joke.

Kasem lives in Sonaibera village in Dhing in Nagaon district of central Assam, not very far from the birthplace of Sankardeva, a saint-scholar and one of the most revered figures of Assam. One of his daughters, Halima Khatoon, was declared a foreigner by a foreigners tribunal in Nagaon in 2008. She was later picked up by the police in 2009 and detained. It has been more than nine years, Halima continues to be in Kokrajhar central jail, which also houses a makeshift detention centre for women, one of the six detention centres in Assam. Out of more than 90,000 declared foreigners, around 1,000 are in detention in these six centres.

Kasem, his wife Hajera, and four of his children except Halima were part of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30.

Kasem’s documents include voters identity card, certified copies of his name in the earlier voters list, and a legacy document which is proof that Kasem’s family has been in Assam before the citizenship cut off date of March 25, 1971. “Even her husband’s side of then family and her five kids are in NRC,” Kasem said.

The bundle also has the 2008 order of the tribunal which said Halima ceased to produce evidence to disprove state’s allegation (she is a foreigner) and that is how the case was taken ex parte. The case went to the high court where a single judge bench in 2013 was not convinced about her documents. High court had summoned the case records from the tribunal but some of them had been found misplaced. She had submitted among other documents of her parents, a certificate by the Gaon Bura (village headman) that she was Kasem’s daughter. The court did not entertain her 2015 appeal because it was delayed.

“The cop demanded ₹8,000 and said he could sort out the matter,” Kasem claimed recalling the conversation in Dhing police station in 2009. Kasem was told his daughter is a “Bangladeshi, a Bidekhi”. “I have spent over a lakh for the case in high court... She always asks when will I get her out. I am still hopeful someday her wait will end,” he added. Those out of NRC will have to approach foreigners tribunals which will adjudicate if they are citizens.