Assam Dhubri Alamganj Eviction: 650 Bighas, Industrial Park Plan, Explained
On Sunday, 1 November 2026, the Dhubri district administration demolished more than 550 houses on about 650 bighas of government land at Alamganj Part-IX under Gauripur circle. Officials said the drive was peaceful after notices. District Commissioner Dibakar Nath said the land is meant for the industrial department, which has sought an industrial park site for two years. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X the next day. Family counts and community descriptions differ across reports.
On Sunday, 1 November 2026, the Dhubri district administration ran a large eviction drive at Alamganj Part-IX (also written as Alamganj Ninth Part) under the Gauripur revenue circle in Assam. Officials said they were clearing government land. Hundreds of houses came down. The Chief Minister posted about it the next day. Reports do not agree on every family count or on every building that was hit.
The 60-second version
- Where: Alamganj Part-IX, Gauripur circle, Dhubri district, Assam.
- Land cleared in the first phase: About 650 bighas (PTI: nearly 215 acres) of government land, TOI, Scroll and PTI reported.
- Houses / families: TOI and PTI: more than 550 houses or nearly 550 families. Scroll: homes of over 640 Bengali Muslim families; officials told Scroll more than 4,000 residents were displaced.
- Official line: Notices were served. IG Akhilesh Kumar Singh and DC Dibakar Nath told TOI the drive was peaceful. Nath told Scroll the land is for the industrial department's park search, subject to a government decision. About 150 of 800 noticed bighas were left out because of court cases, he said.
- CM on X (2 November): Himanta Biswa Sarma posted that encroachers in Dhubri were "done", that Assam land is for its people not infiltrators, and praised JCBs. That is his wording.
- Open disputes: Residents say long settlement, purchases from brokers, or touzi revenue payments. The administration calls the occupation encroachment on government land.
What the district administration said
The Times of India (Bijoy Sharma, 1 November 2026, 11:32 PM IST) reported that the drive reclaimed around 650 bighas and demolished more than 550 houses. IG (law and order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh visited the site and said:
"I found people leaving the area with their dismantled materials. We are here to comply with the govt order and ensure its implementation without any hindrance or hassle."
DC Dibakar Nath told TOI the eviction had been ongoing for some time, that land had been examined, that notices went to those allegedly encroaching, and that about 80 percent of those people had already left while remaining houses were being demolished. TOI said the operation began early Sunday under tight security, with about 60 excavators, barricades and temporary camps.
PTI (Guwahati, 1 November) said the Assam government launched the drive to clear 650 bighas, or nearly 215 acres, from alleged encroachment, and that the drive would displace nearly 550 families. Nath told PTI the administration started the drive that morning at Alamganj Part-9 of Gauripur circle.
Scroll (1 November, 8:03 pm) quoted Nath saying notices covered residents on 800 bighas, that the remaining 150 bighas were not cleared because of pending court cases, that the land would go to the industrial department looking for an industrial-park site for two years, and that the further decision would be taken by the government. He claimed residents had settled in phases over about five to ten years and that most had land elsewhere. Residents disputed that claim, Scroll reported.
How many families, and who lived there
The public numbers are not identical.
| Source | Figure printed |
|---|---|
| TOI | More than 550 houses demolished; about 550 families in the planned first phase |
| PTI | Nearly 550 families displaced |
| Scroll | Over 640 Bengali Muslim families' homes demolished; officials said more than 4,000 residents displaced |
| Zee News (3 November) | About 550 families affected in official figures; some reports up to 750; 4,000 to 5,000 people cited |
TOI, citing district administration sources, said nearly 100 of the families facing eviction belonged to the indigenous Deshi community and had reportedly lived on the land for generations without formal government allotment.
Scroll described the demolished homes as those of Bengali Muslim families. It also placed the drive in a longer pattern: about two weeks earlier, more than 1,100 Muslim families were evicted across Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat, and Scroll's compilation of state and district data put about 19,000 families, a majority of them Muslim, as evicted from government land over ten years of BJP rule in Assam. That decade figure is Scroll's compilation. It is not a fresh government release quoted in full in that piece.
What residents said
TOI quoted alleged occupants who said they had bought land from brokers. Saikat Ali said he had purchased land about 14 years earlier from a land broker who was now nowhere to be found. Md Aslam Sheikh and Jalaluddin made similar purchase claims and asked the government to arrest the brokers and help recover money.
Scroll quoted Ali Chand Fakir, 80, who said he had lived in the village since 1962 after moving from Goalpara because of Brahmaputra erosion and floods. He said several residents had paid land revenue under the touzi system between 1972 and 2016, and that after demolition many displaced people were in relatives' houses, roadside tarpaulin shelters, or low-lying char areas without alternative land.
Those are resident accounts. The administration's position, across TOI, PTI and Scroll, is that the land is government land under alleged encroachment after notice.
The Chief Minister's X posts
Deccan Herald (Sumir Karmakar, last updated 3 November 2026, 8:11 PM IST) and Zee News (updated 3 November 2026, 9:44 AM IST) carried Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's 2 November X post. The English and Hindi text, as those outlets printed it, said encroachers in Dhubri were "done", that Assam's land is for its people not infiltrators, and that JCBs are a guaranteed formula for removing encroachment. Zee News also noted an earlier 1 November post from him sharing scenes from Dhubri.
"Infiltrators" is the Chief Minister's word. It is a political allegation, not a court finding attached to every family in Alamganj in the reports read for this piece.
Mosque, mazar and school: two different lines
TOI quoted an official saying a school building, a mazar and other places of worship were not demolished on Sunday.
Deccan Herald wrote that several bulldozers were used at Alamganj Part IX to evict houses, a mosque and other establishments that, according to the district administration, were illegally constructed on government land.
Those two sentences do not agree on whether a mosque was demolished. This piece does not choose. It reports both.
What to watch next
- The 150 bighas left out for court cases. Nath told Scroll those plots were not cleared. Any High Court or lower-court order would change the map of the drive.
- Whether the industrial department actually gets the land. Nath said the hand-over intent is there, and that the government still decides.
- Relief and relocation. Resident accounts describe roadside and char shelters. No statewide rehabilitation package was detailed in the TOI, Scroll, PTI or Deccan Herald copies read for this piece.
- How community descriptions harden. Scroll's Bengali Muslim framing and TOI's Deshi-community note sit side by side. Later official lists, if published, would be the cleaner record.
- Further eviction drives. Scroll linked Alamganj to recent Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat operations. Any new district notice would be a separate story.
Dhubri's Alamganj drive cleared hundreds of houses on land the administration calls government property earmarked for an industrial-park decision. Residents and the Chief Minister are telling different stories about who belonged there.
The Times of India (Bijoy Sharma, 1 November 2026, 11:32 PM IST) is the source for the 650 bighas and more than 550 houses figures, IG Akhilesh Kumar Singh's and DC Dibakar Nath's peaceful-operation quotes, the 80 percent vacated line, about 60 excavators, the nearly 100 Deshi families note, resident purchase claims from Saikat Ali, Md Aslam Sheikh and Jalaluddin, and the official line that a school, mazar and other places of worship were not demolished on Sunday. PTI (Guwahati, 1 November) is the source for 650 bighas or nearly 215 acres and nearly 550 families. Scroll (1 November 2026, 8:03 pm) is the source for over 640 Bengali Muslim families, more than 4,000 residents displaced per officials, the 800 and 150 bighas notice split, Nath's industrial-department and court-case comments, Ali Chand Fakir's 1962 and touzi account, the recent Nagaon-Hojai-Golaghat figure, and the about 19,000 families decade compilation. Deccan Herald (Sumir Karmakar, last updated 3 November 2026, 8:11 PM IST) is the source for the industrial-park headline framing, the mosque-and-establishments demolition line as DH wrote it, and the text of Himanta Biswa Sarma's 2 November X post. Zee News (updated 3 November 2026, 9:44 AM IST) is an additional source for that X post and for the 4,000 to 5,000 people range it cited. Encroachment, infiltrator and illegal-construction labels are attributed to the officials or outlets that used them. They are not findings of this desk.
Frequently asked questions
›What happened in Dhubri's Alamganj eviction on 1 November 2026?
The Times of India reported that the Dhubri district administration demolished more than 550 houses and reclaimed around 650 bighas of government land at Alamganj Ninth Part (also called Alamganj Part-IX) under the Gauripur revenue circle. PTI put the drive at 650 bighas, or nearly 215 acres, and said it would displace nearly 550 families. Scroll reported that officials told it more than 4,000 residents were displaced after homes of over 640 Bengali Muslim families were demolished on the same 650 bighas.
›Did officials say the eviction was peaceful?
Yes. TOI quoted Inspector General of Police (law and order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh saying the operation was progressing peacefully with no reports of resistance, and District Commissioner Dibakar Nath saying the drive was being conducted peacefully with security in place. TOI said about 60 excavators were pressed into service.
›Why does the administration say the land is being cleared?
Nath told Scroll that eviction notices covered residents on 800 bighas, that 150 bighas were left out because of pending court cases, and that the cleared land would be handed to the industrial department, which has looked for an industrial-park site for two years, with the further decision left to the government. Deccan Herald's 3 November headline framed the cleared land as to be offered for an industrial park.
›What did Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma say?
On 2 November 2026 he posted on X, as carried by Deccan Herald and Zee News: Encroachers in Dhubri - It's done bro, that Assam's land is for its people not infiltrators, and that JCBs are a guaranteed formula for removing encroachment. That is his political framing. It is not a court finding.
›How do reports describe who lived there?
Scroll described the demolished homes as belonging to over 640 Bengali Muslim families. TOI, citing district administration sources, said nearly 100 of the families facing eviction belonged to the indigenous Deshi community and had reportedly lived on the land for generations without formal government allotment. Residents quoted by TOI and Scroll disputed broker sales and long settlement claims. Those community labels and counts are the outlets' reporting, not a single verified census.
›Were places of worship demolished?
TOI quoted an official saying a school building, a mazar and other places of worship were not demolished on Sunday. Deccan Herald separately wrote that bulldozers were used to evict houses, a mosque and other establishments that the district administration said were illegally built on government land. Those two accounts do not match on the mosque. This piece reports both.