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Indian authorities have expelled more than 1,500 Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh in recent weeks without due process, claiming that they are ‘illegal immigrants’, the Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The international rights watchdog, in a press release posted on its website, said that the people expelled between May 7 and June 15 this year include Indian citizens and about 100 Rohingyas from Myanmar.

India’s detention and expulsion of anyone without due process are violations of fundamental human rights, the HRW said.

The organisation urged the Indian government to stop unlawfully deporting people without due process and instead ensure everyone’s access to procedural safeguards to protect against arbitrary detention and expulsion.

‘India’s ruling BJP is fuelling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens,’ said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 

The HRW interviewed 18 people in June, including affected individuals and family members in nine cases. 

On July 8, the HRW wrote to India’s external affairs ministry but received no response, the release said and added that the crackdown followed a deadly attack by gunmen against Hindu tourists in Jammu and Kashmir in April. 

The Indian police started harassing Muslims, refused to accept their citizenship claims, and seized their phones, documents, and personal belongings, leaving them unable to contact family members, it also said. 

The release referred to an interview of a former schoolteacher and Indian citizen, Khairul Islam, 51, who, along with 14 others, was tortured and forcibly pushed into Bangladesh on May 26. The man managed to return to India two weeks later.

The Indian government should ensure access to fundamental procedural safeguards for anyone subject to expulsion and should ensure that security forces and border guards do not use excessive force, the release said.

According to reports published in ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·, India pushed at least 1,939 people, including Rohingyas and Indian nationals, into Bangladesh between May 7 and July 17 this year.