Guwahati, Oct 8 (PTI) Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday questioned Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on the whereabouts of a Nagaon woman, who was “illegally pushed back” to Bangladesh in mid-June, after her son rejected the BJP leader’s claim that he was in touch with his mother.
Gogoi demanded that the woman, Mumtaz Begum, be traced and reunited with her family immediately.
Sharing his October 2 letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over the “disappearance” of Mumtaz and another woman on social media, the Congress MP maintained that the “ordeal of Mumtaz Begum’s family continues”.
Gogoi had earlier stated that the Foreigners Tribunal at Nagaon had declared both women foreigners in 2019, and their alleged pushback violated due legal process.
In the X post on Thursday, he claimed that Mumtaz was sent across the India-Bangladesh border on the intervening night of June 13–14, without her family being informed.
“They have been searching for her ever since. Even Bangladesh has begun looking for her,” the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha said.
He said that following his letter to Jaishankar, seeking his intervention to trace Mumtaz and facilitate her safe return, Sarma had claimed that Mumtaz was safe and in daily touch with her son.
“But Momruz Ali, her son, says he has had no contact with his mother and has received no official word from the authorities about her whereabouts. The family has little means of locating her themselves,” Gogoi said in the post on X.
He questioned that if the chief minister knows she is safe, then where is she and why has she not been reunited with her family yet.
The Gauhati HC has already criticised both the Tribunal and the state machinery for how her case was handled”.
“The Court also directed the MEA to endeavour to locate Mumtaz in Bangladesh and facilitate her return,” he added.
Gogoi affirmed that no family should be left without knowing where their loved one was and added, “I reiterate Mumtaz’s family’s demand: trace her, on either side of the border, and bring her home.”
In the letter to the Union minister ahead of the October 6 Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, Gogoi had sought to know the whereabouts of Mumtaz Begum of Dhing Gaon and Jahanara Begum of Bagariguri, both of them having been sent across the border on the same night.
Gogoi had said that the two women had moved the Gauhati High Court challenging the Tribunal’s ruling that the were foreigners.
The high court had in April this year set aside the earlier order and remanded both matters to the Tribunal for fresh consideration because material evidence had not been properly examined.
In accordance with the court’s directions, Jahanara appeared before the Tribunal on May 29 and Mumtaz the next day, but both were taken into custody and were deprived of the opportunity to obtain a fresh order from the Tribunal to challenge it before the High Court, Gogoi had said.
Seeking Jaishankar’s intervention, Gogoi had added that “individuals cannot simply disappear after being taken into state custody and pushed across an international border”. PTI SSG NN
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