The troubling story of 68-year-old Sakina Begum, detailed in a report by photojournalist Parvez Ahmad Rony of Drik, once again highlights what feminist activist Khawar Mumtaz in Lahore calls the “tyranny of policies” – crafted without considering their human impact.
Rony’s report, published recently in The Wire, outlines how Sakina, a resident of Nalbari district in the north-east state of Assam in India, went missing for months after the police took her in for questioning. Her daughter told Rony later that Sakina Begum had been “running from pillar to post to try and prove she is an Indian citizen”.
She surfaced in a tin-shed settlement in Dhaka, where Jakia Begum, a local resident, found her sitting by the roadside, “disoriented and alone, after allegedly being pushed across the border without documentation,” reports Rony.
Jakia Begum took her in, nursed her back to health, and, along with others in the settlement, sheltered her for four months. Realising that Sakina was from Assam, they tried to find a way to send her back.
In the process, they contacted a BBC Bangla reporter, who managed to locate her family. Ironically, the BBC report shared on social media led to the local police taking Sakina into custody under Bangladesh’s Control of Entry Act, 1952. She was produced in court and charged with being in Bangladesh without a passport or visa. Nearly two months later, she remains in custody after multiple failed bail petitions. Sakina’s case is more than an individual tragedy. It reveals how punitive cross-border policies in Southasia often fall hardest on the poor, undocumented, elderly and illiterate.
The story, as Mumtaz, a founder member and advisor of the Southasia Peace Action Network, sharply articulates, underscores how decisions based on suspicion and bureaucratic retribution ultimately punish those least able to navigate the state machinery.
The Wire report also highlights how citizens like Sakina, unaware of complex legal processes, get trapped between states. Assam deported her. Bangladesh does not recognise her as its citizen. The result is a woman pushed from one country, criminalised in another and caught in a limbo that could occur anywhere in the region.
Rony’s report is significant for Southasia because it exposes a pattern of cross-border pushbacks, lack of transparency from security agencies, and the near-total absence of safeguards for vulnerable individuals.
It also shows the extraordinary compassion of ordinary people like Jakia Begum, the domestic worker who sheltered Sakina for months and continues to fight for her release.
Pragyan Srivastava / Sapan News
Lead Image : Sakina Begum being escorted by the police from Kashimpur Jail to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Dhaka, for a hearing on November 10, 2025. Photo Parvez Ahmad Rony
The Sapan News Dossier aims to amplify original reporting from other sources and draw attention to issues that reflect a larger, systemic problem in Southasia.
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