Soldiers From Assam Village Fight A Battle On The Home Front Too

These men in uniform from Saru Harid in Barpeta district have struggled for years to overcome doubts about their citizenship

- Rahul Karmakar

The Army, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Border Security Force have never had a problem counting these soldiers as their own and deploying them to protect the country’s borders, from the frozen reaches of the Siachen Glacier to the militancy-hit Kashmir, or to combat home-grown insurgents.

But these battle-hardened men from a western Assam village have struggled for years to overcome a bigger threat at home — a system that continues to doubt their citizenship.

Barpeta district’s Saru Harid, 145 km west of Guwahati, is often referred to as a village of ‘faujis’ (soldiers).

At least half-a-dozen youth from the village of some 6,000 people, most of whom are Muslims, join the security forces every year. But that has not stopped the local administration, particularly the State’s Border Police, from suspecting them to be foreigners and asking them to prove their citizenship. The irony does not escape farmer Ratul Ali, whose brothers are among at least seven serving soldiers or paramilitary personnel who have been labelled foreigners since 2003.

SUNDAY SPECIAL