A Bangladeshi national operating an export business in Kolkata’s Topsia area was arrested early Thursday (May 22) for possessing a Chinese-manufactured drone without legal documentation. The arrest, made by Topsia police, also led to the recovery of parts of another drone during a search of the suspect’s residence.
The accused, identified as Imran Ahmed, is originally from the Tangail region of Bangladesh. Though he had been residing and running an export business in the Topsia locality, police say Ahmed was living in India under a false identity. His documents, including a passport, were found to be forged during verification by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).
According to police, Ahmed was unable to provide satisfactory documentation or a credible explanation for the drone, which is believed to be of Chinese origin and was reportedly being operated without proper permissions. The Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF) and the detective department have now joined the investigation to probe possible security implications.
If found guilty, the accused will be tried and deported. Many illegal Bangladeshi nationals living in India have been deported in the last few months.
In a latest developments, India on May 22, said it has asked Bangladeshi authorities to verify the nationality of more than 2,300 illegal migrants (in India) so that they can be deported.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “We have asked the Bangladeshi side to verify their nationality. We have a pending list of 2,369 people who are required to be deported.”
“Foreigners staying in India illegally, whether they happen to be Bangladeshi nationals or any other national, will be dealt with as per law. We have a large number of Bangladeshi nationals here who are required to be deported,” Jaiswal said.
“Many of them have actually completed their jail sentences, and in many cases, the nationality verification is pending since 2020. We would urge the Bangladeshi side [to] expedite the verification process so that people who are required to be deported can be sent back to Bangladesh,” he said.
A Silent Shift in Policy
Following the May 6 terror attack in Pahalgam (Kashmir), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued instructions to all states to identify and arrest Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in India. The order led to the apprehension of hundreds of Bangladeshi immigrants from across states including Assam, Gujarat, Delhi, Karnataka, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh.
Realising that formal deportation was unlikely — as Bangladesh routinely denies that such infiltrators are its citizens — the MHA took a decision: to transport arrested illegal immigrants by road and air to remote points along the Indo-Bangladesh border and push them back without documentation or acknowledgment.
The BSF (Border Security Force), acting on instructions, identified secluded stretches along the borders of Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura, including the Sundarbans and forested hill areas in Tripura, through which deportations could be executed discreetly. These areas were minimally patrolled by Bangladesh’s Border Guards (BGB).
As per a report by Swarajya, the unofficial campaign began on May 6, the same day as Operation Sindoor. That day, 66 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (IBIs) were pushed back into the Khagrachari district of Chittagong division through Tripura. Of them, 15 were sent via the Taidong border, 27 through the Shantipur border, and 24 via Rupsen Para — all forested and sparsely guarded.
Many of these individuals were previously arrested in Gujarat and flown to Tripura before being handed over to BSF.
On May 7, another 15 IBIs — including women and children — were deported into Kamalganj in Moulvibazar district of Sylhet. This group had been staying illegally in Assam, obtained fraudulent Indian documents, and was recently arrested and airlifted to Tripura. Sources say they were part of a larger batch of 300 immigrants, most of whom have since vanished into villages across Bangladesh after being pushed across the border.
Perhaps the most striking incident occurred on May 9, when 78 IBIs were transported by boats to Mandarbaria island in the Sundarbans — a remote area in Satkhira district. The Bangladesh Coast Guard detained the group, who included individuals with Indian documents, wives, and children.
An MHA official, speaking to Swarajya, defended the operation: “No country will accept the presence of such a large number of foreigners who have entered and are staying in the country illegally… If their country of origin refuses to acknowledge them and refuses to take them back, other measures need to be taken.”
The official referred to Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with Bangladesh’s interim government head Mohammad Yunus during the BIMSTEC summit in April. There, Modi reportedly made it clear that the Indo-Bangladesh border is inviolable and that India will no longer tolerate illegal infiltration.
The operation continues despite diplomatic noise. MHA officials say that while deporting millions of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants will be difficult, this push-back sends a clear message: India will no longer tolerate illegal migration, and infiltration across either of its volatile frontiers — with Myanmar or Bangladesh — will be met with resolute, covert action.
Bangladesh has also raised concerns that some deported individuals are Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in India, but Indian officials remain unfazed, noting that India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and thus has no obligation to shelter them.
“It is Bangladesh’s responsibility to ensure the Rohingyas in its camps do not enter India illegally,” said the MHA official.
