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two days after the state Home and Hill Affairs Department’s Foreigners’ Branch directed all district administrations to establish “holding centres” for “apprehended foreigners” and “released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation or repatriation”, giving institutional shape to one of the BJP’s most politically resonant themes in West Bengal.

The decision has fuelled anxiety among the state’s roughly 35 million Muslims, many of whom share linguistic and cultural ties with neighbouring Bangladesh.

On May 20, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said communities covered under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled alleged religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- would remain outside the ambit of the new mechanism.

Critics say the measure reflects the government’s long-standing hardline stance on immigration, with top BJP leaders having referred to Bangladeshi migrants in the past as “termites” and “infiltrators”.

The party has pursued similar policies in neighbouring Assam, where it has overseen sweeping identification drives and large-scale detentions, AFP reported.

Rights activists say hundreds have been deported to Bangladesh from Assam without due legal process, often based on ethnic profiling.

Many have allegedly been pushed across the border at gunpoint, according to activists and lawyers who have challenged the measures in court.

They argue the policies disproportionately affect Muslims by conflating religious identity with illegal migration.