Assam STF cracks down on illegal Rohingya immigrants, arrests 8 persons

Guwahati (Assam) [India]: The Special Task Force (STF) of Assam police has apprehended 8 people including two Bangladeshi nationals from Tripura for helping illegal Rohingya immigrants enter India by using fake documents, officials said.

According to the officials, the apprehended people have been identified as Uttam, Kajal Sarkar, Sagar Sarkar, Pervez Hussain alias Abdul Hussain, Md. Shaahadat alias Sahadat SK (Bangladeshi national), Shib Sankar Ghosh alias Boto, Kartik Nama, and Bijoy Barua.

Partha Sarathi Mahanta, DIG (STF) of Assam police said, “Based on the direction of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the STF of Assam police conducted a massive operation to crackdown the modus operandi of Rohingya infiltration and apprehended eight touts including two Bangladeshi nationals from Tripura who helped illegal Rohingya immigrants to enter into India by using fake documents.”

An all-out operation was conducted by the STF, Assam as per the direction of the CM and under the supervision of Partha Sarathi Mahanta, DIG (STF), against the linkman/touts of Rohingya Muslims by deputing five numbers of police teams, headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) level officers to various bordering districts of Tripura.

DIG Mahanta noted that during the operation in the bordering districts of Tripura in the hideout places, linkman/touts are found involved in illegal business for crossing Rohingya Muslims into Indian territory by using fake IDs and other travelling documents for showing the illegal Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi nationals as an Indian citizen, which is a major threat to national security.

“The modus operandi of the touts, involved in the business of bringing such Rohingya Muslims into India from Bangladesh is for ulterior motives, having the propensity to cause internal disturbance, thereby threatening unity, integrity and sovereignty,” Mahanta said.

DIG (STF) Mahanta, told media that, any illegal immigrant is a threat to the country and illegal Rohingya immigrant is a serious threat to national security.

“In the last few months, it came to our notice that Rohingyas are trying to infiltrate into our country using Assam as a corridor. Therefore CM Sarma has instructed Assam police to go all out against these illegal Rohingya immigrants.

Two months back we arrested four touts and we decided to go after the touts. Based on revelation during interrogation, we have planned to conduct an operation and we have found that most of these touts are operating from Tripura and their base is near the India-Bangladesh border.”

“They make fake documents and they facilitate these illegal immigrants to travel to various parts of the country. They have made fake documents, fake Aadhaar cards, birth certificates and using these fake documents the illegal immigrants travel to various places,” he added.

The touts also facilitate the illegal Rohingya immigrants to board Delhi-bound trains from Kumarghat Railway Station (Tripura).

These Touts escorted Rohingyas to board Kolkata/Delhi/ Hyderabad/ Bangalore bound trains from Dharmanagar, Kumarghat (Tripura) and Badarpur (Assam) by using fake IDs as well as processing fake documents.

“Five days ago, we formed five teams under five ASP of Assam police and sent them to Tripura on July 28 and for the last three days, they were camping in Tripura.

They were able to apprehend eight touts and also seized many incriminating documents including fake Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, birth certificates, number of mobile phones. Now we have brought them to STF.

They will be arrested in our STF case and we will take up follow-up action and we will go to different parts of the country. We will send our teams to different parts of the country where the illegal immigrants have already arrived,” Mahanta said.

Further investigation to crack down on the illegal network of touts involved in anti-India activities is underway.