India on Thursday said that New Delhi expects Dhaka to expedite the process of verifying the nationality of undocumented Bangladesh migrants so that they could be repatriated “in a smooth manner”.
During the weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said that more than 2,862 cases of nationality verification are pending with Bangladesh, “some for over five years”.
The statements came against the backdrop of remarks made by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections on Monday.
Replying to a question about reports of Indian border guards “pushing in” persons into Bangladesh, Rahman said that Dhaka would take “whatever measures are necessary on that issue”.
Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.
Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.
Scroll has also reported on several cases of persons who were forced into Bangladesh being brought back to India, as the authorities had failed to follow the process laid down by the home ministry for such deportations.
On Thursday, responding to questions about Rahman’s remarks, Jaiswal said that these comments must be “seen in the context of the core issue of the repatriation of illegal Bangladeshis” from India.
“This obviously requires cooperation from Bangladesh,” he told reporters.
Rahman had said on Monday that when Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma “admitted he had taken certain actions, you saw that we strongly protested”.
Rahman was referring to the Bangladesh government summoning acting Indian High Commissioner Pawan Badhe on April 30 to protest what it described as “anti-Bangladesh remarks” made by Sarma.
Separately, Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed expressed hope that persons would not be “pushed” into the country after the BJP’s victory in the Assembly elections in the bordering states, The Times of India reported.
Apart from West Bengal, the Hindutva party also won the Assembly elections in Assam on Monday. Both Assam and West Bengal border Bangladesh.
“I hope no such incident [push backs] will happen,” the newspaper quoted Ahmed as saying on Wednesday. He added that the Border Guard Bangladesh had been asked to “remain alert” along the frontier.
Sarma’s recent remarks
While it was unclear what remarks made by the Assam chief minister had led to the Indian High Commissioner being summoned, it came weeks after Sarma’s interview to an Indian news on April 15, in which he commented about relations between New Delhi and Dhaka, and security concerns.
“We like it when India-Bangladesh relations are not good,” Sarma had said during the interview. “Because when relations are good, the Indian government also does not want to push back [undocumented migrants]. Therefore, people of Assam feel good when there is a hostile atmosphere between India and Bangladesh…When there is a friendly atmosphere, all things become loose.”
Dhaka’s summons also came after Sarma, on April 25, claimed that 20 undocumented migrants from Bangladesh had been apprehended and sent back.
“Rude people don’t understand soft language,” the BJP leader had said on social media. “We continuously remind ourselves of this prophetic line when we expel infiltrators from Assam who don’t leave themselves.”
Sarma has repeatedly said that the Assam government was committed to ensuring an “infiltration-free” Assam, claiming that about 35 to 40 “illegal” immigrants were being “pushed back” in Bangladesh every week.
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