Mainstream WeeklyIn recent times, tales of brutal treatment and eviction of Bengali migrant workers from different states in India have been reported in the media. Some Muslim workers from Murshidabad district in West Bengal, who went to Mumbai to earn their livelihood, were arrested by the police on June 9, 2025, and brutally tortured in the prison. One of them, Shamim Khan, complained that the police took away his mobile phone, voter identity card and about twenty thousand rupees that he had. Then the police tied up their hands and forcibly took them to the Pune airport. They were dropped at Bagdogra airport. Ultimately, they were forcibly sent to Bangladesh through the Mekhliganj border of Cooch Behar. They got released through the intervention of the West Bengal government and reached their homes in Murshidabad on June 17, 2025 (Anandabazar Patrika, July 17, 2025)
The Bengali migrant workers are facing tough times in other states also. The harassments and fears of Bengali migrant workers at Gurgaon in the BJP-ruled state, Haryana, have been reported in The Indian Express (July 25, 2025):