The hunt for “Bangladeshi nationals” has now begun in Maharashtra. Karnataka already sent 59 undocumented immigrants to West Bengal to be deported by Border Security Force to Bangladesh. Reports also came in from cities like Agra, Delhi, Mathura that illegal immigrants have been booked.
On December 17 it was reported that the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) of Boisar in Palghar district arrested 12 Bangladeshi nationals, which includes 9 women, on a tip-off received by them. The ATC officials said that those arrested did not have any valid documents to prove their nationality.
One of the officials told Sabrang India that they acted upon information received and they found out that these people did not have any documents. When asked if they have a list of documents that can be considered as valid, he brushed off ID documents like Aadhaar Card and PAN card and said that these documents don’t prove anything. He further said that sometimes people make passport also on fake documents so we do not consider having passport as an absolute proof. He further said that documents like domicile of father or mother is a stronger proof.
When asked if such operations of nabbing illegal immigrants have bolstered due to the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) he responded that such operations are a regular exercise and acted upon whenever information is received and they have been making such arrests since many years now and it has nothing to do with CAA.
When questioned about how did the police determine that they were Bangladeshi nationals and not just some poor migrants from West Bengal without documents he said, “Their phones had contacts saved which were numbers of Bangladeshi people. They are their relatives they are constantly in touch with.” He indicated that the arrested people all spoke Bangla and belonged to the Muslim Community. But, then can’t Bengali Muslim’s be Indian? Also is it that uncommon or even illegal to have relatives across the border?
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