On Friday, the eve of the publishing of a citizenship register that could leave millions of stateless people, many of them Muslims, tens of thousands of paramilitary staff and police were deployed in the Indian border state of Assam.
After decades of campaigning by organizations complaining about illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, Assam citizens have been scrambling for the past four years to establish their identity in a court-ordered exercise.
Authorities will publish the final list of citizenship on Saturday. Four million individuals left off a draft last year, increasing the opportunities for demonstrations by individuals facing an uncertain future when the list goes out.
“We are on track to publish the final list on Saturday and all efforts have been made to ensure people have no difficulties in checking their names,” a state official said.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, supported by Hindu nationalists, endorsed the test of citizenship and said it could extend the practice to other border states like West Bengal.
Critics claim that Assam’s search for illegal immigrants was mainly targeted at Muslim minority.
Police said 60,000 state police and 19,000 paramilitary personnel will be on duty on Saturday. The tea-growing state of Assam, with a population of 33 million people, has a history of sectarian and ethnic violence.
“All precautionary measures have been taken with security forces deployed in strength,” said Assam police chief Kuladhar Saikia.
Residents had to produce records showing that before March 24, 1971, they or their relatives lived in India. That year, during its India-backed war of independence from Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of individuals escaped Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Hundreds of thousands of individuals left off the draft list lodged allegations claiming they were Indian.
The government says individuals who are not on the list will have a four-month period to file appeals with a court.
Illegal immigrants, the government says, will be sent to detention centers and eventually deported to Bangladesh.
But there are no facilities to hold large numbers of individuals, and there is no commitment from Bangladesh to accept individuals that India would dismiss.