Five-year-old Tariq does not know that he is an illegal Bangladeshi migrant violating the Foreigner’s Act, even though he was born in Gujarat. The mentally unstable boy plays all alone outside his father’s cell during the day and goes inside to sleep with him at night.

He has no clue as to why his mother is not with him. After the police detained her husband and three children, Tariq’s mother Surubibi had stood requesting in vain at the gate of the detention camp of the Gujarat Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) to return at least Tariq. They were among the 75 Bangladeshi nationals rounded up in April this year.

In hiding now, Surubibi shows the only photograph she had of Tariq, pleading for help to get her boy back. “SOG ke aadmi ne mere aankh mein mukka mara aur kaha ‘apne saare bachhe nikaal warna isko nahi chhodoonga’. Us raat Tariq mere aadmi ke saath khel raha tha. Dono ko gaadi mein maar kar bithaya aur mere haathon se Shafiq aur Haroon ko chheen kar le gaya. Bolta hai hum aatankwadi hain. Tariq to deewana hai… kya galti hai uski? (An SOG officer punched me in the eye and told me to ‘get all your children out or I will not leave this boy’. They detained my husband and Tariq who was playing with him. They snatched Shafiq (9) and Haroon (13) from my hands and threatened to harm Tariq if I uttered a word. SOG officers call us terrorists. Tariq is mentally unstable. What is his fault?)”

... contd.