Members of the Nasya Sheikh community — a Muslim community residing in Cooch Behar and some other parts of north Bengal — took out a rally here on Monday and demonstrated in front of the district magistrate’s office, demanding that they be provided with “native Muslim” or son-of-the- soil status.

They submitted a memorandum addressed to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on behalf of the Nasya Sheikh Unnayan Parishad, seeking the status to help them avert harassment.

Bajle Rahaman, the president of the organisation, referred to the recent drive launched by the police in Delhi to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators who obtained fake Indian documents to stay in this country.

He said that in the wake of the unrest in Bangladesh, many in their community were being looked at suspiciously.

“We want the state to grant us the son-of-the-soil status and provide us with proper identity documents. We have been staying in Cooch Behar and north Bengal for generations. Still, many people in our community are facing harassment nowadays,”
Rahaman said.

“Despite being Indians, Nasya Sheikhs are being harassed under the pretext of verification. The situation has reached such an extent that police teams from Delhi have even visited Cooch Behar to check out the identities of people in our community. This is disappointing,”
Rahaman said.

“We want the state to provide us with unique identity cards and proper recognition,” he added.

A senior leader of the Parishad, who joined the march, echoed Rahaman.

“We are Indians but are being treated like Bangladeshi infiltrators. The Bengal government should take steps to clear the wrong notion that prevails in many states that a Bengali-speaking Muslim means a Bangladeshi,” said the leader.

On Monday, leaders and workers of the All India Forward Bloc submitted a memorandum at the office of the block development officer of Dinhata-II block at Sahebganj in Dinhata to protest the Delhi police verification drive.

“We want the administration to take steps so that the migrant workers from Cooch Behar are not harassed in Delhi on the pretext of identity verification,” said Abdur Rauf, a Forward Bloc leader.

“Residents of the erstwhile enclaves, who were granted Indian citizenship in 2015, should be provided with proper documents so that they need not show the identity proofs of their forefathers,” Rauf added.