Two outfits claiming to be a coalition of rights defenders in a fact-finding report released on Friday in Ranchi have stated that Bengali-speaking Muslims in Santhal Pargana are Indians and not Bangladeshi infiltrators as “propagated” by BJP leaders in poll-bound Jharkhand.

The Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha and the Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan said that their delegation had gone to Pakur and Sahibganj districts of Santhal Pargana as part of a fact-finding exercise after the BJP’s “continuous propagation” that a large number of Bangladeshi infiltrators are settling in the region by grabbing tribal land and marrying Adivasi women, leading to a decline in the tribal population.

“The BJP has linked some recent cases of violence with Bangladeshi infiltrators and is using it for social and political mobilisation. The fact-finding team spoke in detail with the students, victims, accused individuals, villagers from both sides, village heads and local activists in recent major cases in Pakur and Sahibganj,” said Siraj Dutta, a member of the fact-finding team.

“The team also studied the registered FIRs and related documents in these cases. Census data from 1901 till now, related census reports, gazetteers and research papers related to the demography of the area, were also assessed. The team found that the ground reality is far from the communal claims of the BJP,” Dutta said.

“The team found that all the incidents were between different local communities and people. None of the villagers — Adivasi, Hindu or Muslim — talked about the settlement of Bangladeshi infiltrators. Even the BJP mandal president living in Taranagar-Ilami said that all the Muslims of his area were locals and not infiltrators,” the report claimed.

“At present, a large part of the Muslim community living in Pakur and Sahibganj are Shershabadias who have been settled there for many decades.

“Apart from them, there are Pasmanda and other Muslim communities settled in Jharkhand who have come from neighbouring states. Many among them are Jamabandi Raiyats (landholders), and many have settled here in the past few decades, having come from nearby districts or states,” the report claimed.

“Historically, the Shershabadia Muslim community settled along the banks of the river Ganga (from Rajmahal to present-day Rajshahi district in Bangladesh) since the Mughal era. It is also significant that in most of the villages where the BJP has raised issues, there is no history of communal violence,” the report stated.

“The BJP has been consistently claiming that the Adivasi population has decreased by 10-16 per cent in the past 24 years because of Bangladeshi infiltrators. First of all, there is no evidence of Bangladeshi infiltrators settling here.

“Second, according to census data, in 1951, the Santhal Pargana region had 46.8 per cent Adivasis, 9.44 per cent Muslims, and 43.5 per cent Hindus. By 1991, the Adivasi population became 31.89 per cent, while the Muslim population became 18.25 per cent. According to the latest census (2011), the region had 28.11 per cent Adivasi, 22.73 per cent Muslims, and 49 per cent Hindus. Between 1951 and 2011, the Hindu population increased by 24 lakh, the Muslim population by 13.6 lakh, and the Adivasi population by 8.7 lakh,” the report said.