The 58-year-old woman, a resident
of Barpeta district in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, said she was summoned to the police station on May 25 and later taken to the Bangladesh border. From there, she and at least 13 others were forcibly sent across the border into Bangladesh.
Shona Banu claims that she was not told why she was being sent. But she has been afraid for a long time - because for the past few years she has been trying to prove that she is an Indian citizen, not an 'illegal Bangladeshi infiltrator'.
Shona Banu said, "They pushed me into Bangladesh at gunpoint. After that, I spent two days without eating or sleeping, knee-deep in water and in a field full of mosquitoes and lice."
He was then held in an old prison-like facility inside the Bangladesh border. After two days there, he and several others were sent back to the Indian border, where Indian officials again sent them home.
It is unclear why she was sent
and then returned. But Shona Bano's case is one of several recent incidents. The BBC has received information about at least six cases where families have reported that their relatives have been taken and left at the border.
The 'no man's land' between Bangladesh and India. Shona Banu spent two days here. Photo: BBC
India's Border Security Force (BSF), Assam Police and the state government did not respond to BBC questions on the matter.
India's crackdown on 'illegal Bangladeshi'
infiltrators is nothing new. The two countries share a nearly 4,000-kilometre-long border, which is often dangerous and open to entry. But lawyers say that suddenly snatching someone from their home and sending them to another country without due process is rare and illegal.
Bangladeshi administration sources say that in May alone, India 'illegally' pushed more than 1,200 people into Bangladesh. Bangladesh has identified 100 of them as Indian citizens and sent them back.
The Bangladesh Border Guard Force (BGB) said in a statement that it has strengthened surveillance along the border. There was no official comment from the Indian government on the allegations.
