In a video posted by UP Tak, UP Police can be seen doing the rounds of settlements asking people for documents. As per the news report the policemen were going around in Muslim households in Benaras and asking for information like their name, twhere their family originates from etc. This was being done in Badau Chungi area of Adampur as well as Ganganagar colony and near Kashi railway station.
If they found out that someone belongs to West Bengal, they allegedly asked such people to produce all documents like Aadhaar card, PAN card, ration card and voter ID. If they were not found in possession of the documents, they were ordered to visit the police station with the documents at the earliest. This crackdown on illegal immigrants appears to be taking place with full blessings of the Adityanath administration where unrestricted powers appear to have been given to the police in handling anti-CAA protests. So far 25 persons have been reported killed in the violence related to the protests.
The UP police has, in the year 2019, arrested quite a few “illegal immigrants” in Agra and Mathura. This crackdown also seems like the first step towards identifying such immigrants to eventually arrest them. One of the police officials himself admitted on camera that they were asking people living in these settlements for their ID documents and information about how long they have been living there. The policemen also took videos of the people for easy identification in the future.
The people who were asked for documents said they have grown up there and that they do jobs like driving rickshaws or rag picking to earn a living. A strong directive from the Chief Minister’s Office has allegedly prompted such swift action and hard crackdown by the police.
