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Admn sets up panel to identify foreign nationals overstaying illegally in Jammu and Kashmir
Acting upon an order by the Union ministry of home affairs, the Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a high-powered committee to identify foreign nationals overstaying illegally in the union territory since January 1, 2011.
Acting upon an order by the Union ministry of home affairs, the Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a high-powered committee to identify foreign nationals overstaying illegally in the union territory since January 1, 2011.
Official sources said that the aim of the committee is to identify the Rohingya Muslims, foreign nationals from Bangladesh and the families of surrendered militants who are staying in Kashmir after they returned to J&K via Nepal taking advantage of the amnesty scheme announced by the then chief minister Omar Abdullah in 2010 and surrendered militants started returning to J&K from 2011.
Sources said that the government through this committee wants to make a data bank of all such foreign nationals and many staying illegally could be deported to their respective countries.
The six-member panel is headed by financial commissioner and additional chief secretary, home department, RK Goyal and has foreigners’ regional registration officer, Amritsar, two SSPs of the CID wing of Jammu and Srinagar, all district SSPs of the 20 districts and state coordinator, IVFRT, NIC, J&K.
The panel shall prepare a monthly report of missing foreigners in Jammu and Kashmir and submit the same to the ministry of home affairs by 7th of every month
It may be stated here that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar largely live in Jammu region.
Over 270 Rohingyas have been lodged in Hiranagar sub jail since March 2021 after the government found them without valid documents.
The sub-jail was notified as a ‘holding centre’ on March 5, 2021, for lodging illegal immigrants as defined under Section 2(b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
On April 6 last year the J&K and Ladakh High Court had directed home secretary to identify all illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh in Jammu and Kashmir within six weeks.
As per the government version 13,400 illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were living in various areas of J&K.
According to an official estimate of the last BJP-PDP government in J&K, 5,700 Rohingyas had settled in and around Jammu.
Rohingyas are a Bengali-dialect speaking Muslim minority in Myanmar. Following persecution in their country, many of them entered India illegally through Bangladesh and took shelter in Jammu and other parts of the country.
A government document then had also stated that 17 FIRs were registered against 38 Rohingyas for various offences, including those related to illegal border crossing and drug-trafficking.
On March 3, 2017, the then home minister Rajnath Singh had sought report from the state over unabated influx of refugees to Jammu.
On March 25, 2017, the then Jammu district commissioner Simrandeep Singh had recovered fake state subject certificates, voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards and ration cards from the temporary shelters of Rohingyas in Jammu.
On March 6, 2021, on the instructions of the Union ministry of home affairs, the Jammu & Kashmir administration started a verification drive of the Rohingyas and moved 272 of them to the Hiranagar holding centre.
