The referendum's turnout was in favour of joining the Pakistani union; however, the district's Karimganj subdivision remained within the Indian state of Assam.

[1] Prior to the British arrival in the region in late eighteenth century, the Sylhet Sarkar was a part of the Bengal Subah of the Mughal Empire.

This transfer was implemented despite a memorandum of protests being submitted to the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, on 10 August from the district's Sylheti-majority population which consisted of both Hindus and Muslims.

[5] However, the leaders of the Reunion League, including Muhammad Bakht Mauzumdar and Syed Abdul Majid, who were also involved in Assam's tea trade, later opposed the transfer of Sylhet and Cachar to Bengal in September 1928 during the Surma Valley Muslim Conference; supported by Abdul Majid's Anjuman-e-Islamia and Muslim Students Association.

The Government of Assam believed that removing Sylhet would make the state more homogeneous and strongly unified as a result.