On July 16, Rabiul Khan (40) and his family sat down to have lunch at their home in the Badshahpur slum in Gurgaon’s Sector 66 when the police showed up — and picked him up.
“They took my phone… I could only use it for a few seconds to tell my wife where I was… they checked all my ID proofs. I told them I am from Malda in West Bengal, but they said you are Bangladeshi,” said Khan.
He was eventually released from a ‘holding centre’ at Sector 40 on the evening of July 23, where his wife, Chavi Bibi (39), had been waiting.
Khan was among several men who were rounded up by the Gurgaon Police as part of a ‘routine verification’ drive to identify Bangladeshis and Rohingya living illegally in the city. The move sparked panic among the Bengali-speaking migrant community, prompting many to leave the city.
Sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree near the Shamshan Ghat on Friday, Khan spoke about his ordeal. “They demanded that I reveal the identities of my Bangladeshi neighbours. I was slapped twice…,” he alleged.
“I had my digital voter ID and PAN card on my phone, they checked them… but they did not let me go immediately,” said Khan.
“Our documents clearly show that we are Indian, yet they were still using force.”
Khan said he was held at different centres for a week. “At one of the centres, out of 130, only two were Hindus…”
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He has not gone back to work but has decided not to go home for now. Khan said he has been working in Gurgaon for the past nine years, doing odd jobs like walking dogs and washing cars in upscale housing societies.
He said he was lucky he had a helpful landlord in Surender Jatav, who stood up for him and waited outside the detention centre. Jatav said, “They are Hindustani (Indians), our own people… If they are guilty, investigate — we are with you (police).”
Asked about the facilities inside the holding centre, Khan said, “We were given the same two meals every day — a little bit of rice and dal. But the other facilities were good, we had a mattress and decent toilets.”
His fellow slum resident, Anaraul Haque, 45, has been in Gurgaon since childhood. But he, too, was picked up by the police. “They came last Wednesday after I had dropped my daughter off at her school at 8 am. The police had been asking about me… They hit me on the back twice and took me to their car along with two of my relatives,” he alleged.
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At the holding centre, he alleged that one of the policemen asked him if “he was Bangladeshi, how many Muslims are in the area, and how long he had really been living in Gurgaon?”.
Haque said he told them he was not a Bangladeshi and showed his documents, but the police allegedly said he was not cooperating and took him to Sohna. He said he was let go only after his panchayat office back home emailed some documents.
Tejul Islam, who was questioned by a police team in Sector 26, said the officers were rude during their brief encounter. “They said, ‘Tell us now if you’re Bangladeshi.’ I showed them my documents… If we are Indian citizens, why are we being asked to prove it again after so many years of being accepted?” he said.
Adam Ali, who was picked up from Chakkapur, said, “They just picked me up, took my phone and left my family worried… I wasn’t beaten, but I was treated with constant suspicion.”
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A Gurgaon Police spokesperson said all the alleged suspects were released from the holding centres by late Thursday night.
“There is no question of targeting any community… There have been no instances of violence or demands for bribes to force confessions. The documents requested are part of routine verification, and individuals are released as soon as their documents are authenticated by the local village authorities or the district magistrate.”
On Friday, police said eight Bangladeshi nationals were detained and will be deported.
