SILCHAR: Nine people, including five children, were detained in Assam’s Cachar on Tuesday evening on charges that they were Myanmarese nationals and illegally entered the country, the district police said on Friday.
Police said the nine were members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community and were headed to Bangladesh.
Cachar superintendent of police (SP) Numal Mahatta said on Friday that the nine illegal migrants had been taken into custody and a case registered. “These cases are becoming common now. We are following the standard procedure and have informed higher authorities,” Mahatta said.
Police said the nine persons were spotted by local residents near the India-Bangladesh international border on Tuesday night and handed over to the police.
They had boarded a train from Delhi’s Badarpur railway station a day earlier and then moved to the Katigorah area to cross the border when the locals caught them, police said.
They told interrogators that they had fled Myanmar some years ago and took refuge in a camp in Bangladesh before migrating to India through Tripura to earn their livelihood.
Mohammed Ibrahim, one of the detainees, told reporters that he entered India nearly two years ago with the help of a broker. “I first went to Delhi and later moved to Jammu and Kashmir to work in the construction sector. But when the state government began cracking down on migrant workers, I decided to go back to Bangladesh,” said
{{/usCountry}}Mohammed Ibrahim, one of the detainees, told reporters that he entered India nearly two years ago with the help of a broker. “I first went to Delhi and later moved to Jammu and Kashmir to work in the construction sector. But when the state government began cracking down on migrant workers, I decided to go back to Bangladesh,” said
{{/usCountry}}Another detainee, Dil Mohammad, said his family members were still in Bangladesh and he had been working at a construction site in Punjab. “We were not safe in Myanmar, so we fled to Bangladesh. But for livelihood, I entered India,” he said.
Dil Mohammad added that they had contacted an agency in Delhi, which arranged their travel to Cachar. “After reaching here, one of the agents took away our money and valuables, leaving us stranded. We don’t have money or any documents. We don’t know what to do now,” he said.
One of the detained women said her ailing mother was in Bangladesh and she was desperate to return. “My mother sent me money through UPI so that I could go back quickly, but everything has been stolen,” she claimed.
Some Katigorah residents who alerted the police said they noticed the suspicious movement of the group and detained them.
This is the second such incident reported in the Katigorah sector in recent days. Last week, villagers caught another group of nine Rohingya nationals in the same border belt and handed them over to authorities.
Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and Assam Police have stepped up surveillance along sensitive stretches of the India-Bangladesh border in Barak Valley amid growing concerns over the movement of illegal migrants.