J-K police continue verification drive of illegal Rohingyas

The Jammu and Kashmir administration is also collecting biometric and other details of Rohingyas staying in the union territory.

The verification drive of illegal Rohingyas in Jammu continued for the second day on Sunday, officials said.

Rohingyas at a special camp at M A M stadium in Jammu on Saturday during a verification drive. (PTI)

Long queues of Rohingyas were seen outside the stadium where 150 of them had entered by 12 noon. The venue remains out of bounds for the media.

Dozens of others who gathered with their luggage outside Mecca Masjid in Jammu’s Bhatindi area in the morning said that they were heading home following the verification process initiated by Jammu and Kashmir police.

By late Saturday a total of 169 illegal immigrants without valid travel documents were lodged in Hiranagar jail in Kathua, which has been turned into a holding centre.

“Due process of law was followed in this exercise. These immigrants were not holding valid travel documents required in terms of section (3) of the Passports Act,” inspector general of police (Jammu zone) Mukesh Singh had said Saturday.

The exercise of identifying more such immigrants is going on and the union territory administration is collecting biometric and other details of Rohingyas staying here.

In April 2017, the UNHCR said there were 7,000 Rohingyas in Jammu and Kashmir. The Rohingyas are settled largely in Jammu's Bhatindi, Subhuman and Bawe areas, in Samba's Bari Brahmana, and are also scattered in Kathua and Udhampur districts.