In a bid to identify Bangladeshis staying illegally in the city, the special branch (SB) of the Mumbai police would be taking help of people from West Bengal (WB). For the last few days, the SB has started a drive to catch Bangladeshi nationals staying in the city without valid papers. Nawal Bajaj, additional commissioner of police (SB), said they have arrested over 200 such Bangladeshis so far during raids.

Officials said Bangladeshis manage to pass off as Indians many a times and tell the police that they belong to WB. However, there are finer points like their dialect and local information of the native place in WB, which they may not be aware of. In order to ensure they do not pass off as WB residents, those who are well aware about the background and finer details of the state are helping the SB, officials said. They added that detailed instructions have been issued to the ‘I’ branch of the SB, which looks after the movement of Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals in the city, to ensure that the drive is successful.

The ‘I’ branch will spearhead the operations. Every visitor from Bangladesh and Pakistan is required to report to the ‘I’ branch on arrival, by law.

Officials said that they suspect that many Bangladeshis are residing in the city without the requisite documents and the SB would deport them to Bangladesh after identifying and ascertaining their identity.

Officials said that many Bangladeshis work as labourers in the city and police have now warned labour contractors asking them not to employ Bangladeshi nationals illegally.