Thirty-six years after losing his parents, sister and a 4-year-old daughter in one of India's worst sectarian massacres, Abdul Suban is still trying to prove he is a citizen of the Hindu-majority nation.

Suban is one of hundreds of thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims categorized as "doubtful voters" who will not find their names in a National Register of Citizens (NRC) that the northeastern border state of Assam will release Monday.

"If the government has decided to brand us foreigners, what can we do?" said the 60-year-old. "NRC is trying to finish us off. Our people have died here, but we will not leave this place."