GUWAHATI: Police have arrested 22 Bangladeshi intruders in Guwahati city in the last 24 hours. The latest capture was a group of 13 Bangladeshi infiltrators, including women and children, from a hotel in Panbazar area of the city. DCP Operation Kulendra Deka said that 5 Bangladeshis were arrested on October 7 while trying to board a train to Mumbai and another 13 were arrested at night from a city hotel.
In police interrogation, the group confessed that they were staying in Srinagar for the last 15 years. They reached Assam via train from Srinagar and stayed in a hotel in Guwahati after a telephonic conversation with a taut. Police sources said that the group was looking for a taut network to facilitate their exit from Assam to Bangladesh via Meghalaya border. DCP Deka said that the arrested Bangladeshi infiltrators will be handed over to border police for their expulsion from Assam under the provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act.
Meanwhile 4 more Bangladeshi infiltrators were arrested on October 8 by Guwahati police while travelling in a rented car. The driver of the cab had suspicion on the passengers and immediately communicated with city police. They were taken to the Dispur police station and on preliminary investigation it was found that they are from Bangladesh and entered Assam to board a train to Bangalore.
Police have arrested a tout namely Hajarat Ali from Dhubri in Assam. The arrest was done on the concession of the Bangladeshi infiltrators. Hajarat Ali runs a taut network through Whatsapp. He facilitates Bangladeshi infiltrators to cross borders in Assam and Megjalaya. He also handles the infiltrator’s stay in Guwahati and manages forged Indian documents including Aadhar Card, Voter ID etc. Then he sends these Bangladeshi infiltrators to different locations like Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. Guwahati police have started an intensive investigation to bust the taut network run by Hajarat Ali.
Earlier, five illegal Bangladeshi intruders were arrested by Assam police in Guwahati city on 7th October. The arrests followed by a rain in the busy Paltan Bazar area based on credible intelligence inputs. The arrested intruders were planning to travel to Mumbai via Lokmanya Tilak Express from Guwahati railway station situated in the Paltan Bazar area.
The arrests followed early-morning raids on several hotels in and around the commercial hub. Police suspected 5 individuals staying at Hotel Vintage nearby the railway station. In the initial investigation the suspected persons confessed that they were from Bangladesh and entered India through Dawki border in Meghalaya. 5 mobile phones, Bangladeshi passports and three fake Indian Aadhar cards were seized by the police from the arrested persons which includes 3 women and 2 men. Police also detained the owner and manager of the hotel for allowing the Bangladeshi intruders to stay in their premises.
The Guwahati action comes days after a similar catch in western Assam. On 1st October, 9 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested at New Bongaigaon Railway Station in Bongaigaon district, in a joint operation by Bongaigaon Police and the Government Railway Police (GRP).
Bongaigaon SSP Numal Mahatta said the group was held after questioning confirmed they were Bangladesh citizens. “We have recovered four Bangladeshi national identity cards from their possession,” he told reporters.
Police also seized a Bangladeshi passport, six mobile phones, five railway tickets and three Aadhaar cards suspected to be forged. Preliminary inquiries suggest the group had slipped into Assam through a neighbouring state and was about to board a train out of New Bongaigaon, reportedly in search of work elsewhere in the country. It should be mentioned that in Guwahati alone 38 Bangladeshi infiltrators were arrested in the last 30 days.
