Hyderabad, Aug. 23 -- The Supreme Court, on Friday, August 22, ordered status quo on the large-scale demolition and eviction drive in Assam's Golaghat district.

A bench Justices PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar passed the interim order after the Guwahati High Court refused to protect the residents, around 2,000 Bengali Muslim families.

Assam demolition drive

On July 29, the Himanta-Biswa government launched a massive demolition drive in the Rengma Reserve Forest in Golaghat, alleging encroachment, targeting 2,648 houses across 12 villages. These villagers are predominantly Bengali-speaking Muslims and other communities such as Bodo, Nepali and Manipuri.

So far, 15,000 bighas (around 4,900 acres)have been reclaimed by the government....