There is legal Indian territory in Bangladesh due to the unfair partition of Assam in 1947. What is less known in India is that Assam too was partitioned in 1947. Assam Province had two native Bengali districts namely Sylhet and Cachar. Out of these two districts only Sylhet was partitioned. A referendum was held in the district so as to decide whether the district would remain within India or would join East Pakistan. The responsibility to carry out the referendum was on the shoulders of Congress leaders of Assam headed by Gopinath Bordoloi who later became the first chief minister of Assam State. Bordoloi did not allow the Hindu Adivasis of Sylhet to participate in the voting process of the referendum on the ground that they were not the natives and that the British brought them into Sylhet district from outside. However the British also brought some Muslims into the district from outside and these Muslims were very much allowed by Bordoloi to participate in the voting process. The natives of Sylhet were promised that the voting process would take place in the presence of security forces but during the actual voting process not enough security personnel were provided by Bordoloi. No additional security personnel were brought into the district from outside and astonishingly many security personnel from the district were sent elsewhere. Not enough voting polls were provided in the district and those that were provided were located in the Muslim majority areas alone. As a result the Hindus could not vote properly. India received around 44% votes in the referendum. Therefore 44% of the total area of Sylhet district was given to India by Sir Radcliffe and the remaining 56% of the area was given to Pakistan. There are two pieces of evidence of this fact. The first evidence is the vary map where Sir Radcliffe demarcated the international border within Sylhet district. The second evidence is what Sir Radcliffe has written in words as to how much of Sylhet district should be distributed between India and Pakistan. But in reality India received only 12.8% of the total area of Sylhet district. The remaining 31.2% area is still within Bangladesh which is legally Indian territory. This issue was raised multiple times in the Indian Parliament by several MPs from Assam, namely, MP Suresh Deb, MP Bhupesh Gupta, MP Mahitosh Purkayastha and MP Jogendra Kumar Chaudhury. In 1985 a petition was given to PM Rajiv Gandhi. In 2017 a memorandum was sent to PM Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh and Late Sushma Swaraj through the then Governor of Assam, Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbanand Sonowal. The 12.8% of the total area of Sylhet district that is retained within India was Karimganj sub-division which became a district within Assam State in 1983. The 31.2 % of Sylhet district is equal to 4692 Sq. Km of land. It should be noted that this territory is still legally Indian territory even after the Land Boundary Agreement between Indian and Bangladesh. There is no mention of this territory in the Land Boundary Agreement. It has been over 70 years since the partition of India yet our land which is legally Indian territory is still within Bangladesh.

JAI  HIND !

Below is a link to the memorandum that was sent to the Indian Government in 2017 –


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