Assam Police Apprehend 18 Bangladeshi Nationals in Guwahati Operations

Guwahati: Assam Police on Thursday said that they have apprehended 18 Bangladeshi nationals, including five children, in two separate operations conducted in Guwahati.

Police on Thursday said that four Indian nationals, including a hotel owner, have also been arrested for allegedly harbouring and facilitating the illegal immigrants’ stay and travel. According to police, on Tuesday at around 2.30 pm, during routine checking of train coaches at Guwahati Railway Station, the Border Branch of Panbazar Police Station detained five Bangladeshi nationals — four women and one man — from the general coach of the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express. The train was scheduled to depart for Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Maharashtra at 3 pm.

The five individuals, who belong to Dhaka, Bogura, Rajbari, Narail and Jamalpur districts of Bangladesh, confessed to being Bangladeshi nationals. They stated that they had entered India illegally through the Meghalaya border (Dawki route) by land without any valid travel or identity documents. They had reached Guwahati on October 5, stayed at Vintage Home hotel in Tokobari, and were travelling to Mumbai in search of employment.

A case (Panbazar PS Case No. 225/26) has been registered against the hotel owner and staff for harbouring and facilitating the illegal Bangladeshi nationals. During investigation, Panbazar Police arrested four persons: Amit Roy Basumatary, owner of Vintage Home; managers Bishal/Vishal Paul and Ranjan Dhar and Hajrat Ali, a rickshaw puller from Dhubri who allegedly acted as a middleman coordinating their stay and movement.

In a second operation on Wednesday at around 2.30 pm, based on specific inputs, the Border Branch of Guwahati Police Commissionerate raided Shanti Hotel in the Paltan Bazar area and apprehended 13 more Bangladeshi nationals — four men, four women and five children. The group told police that they had arrived in Guwahati that morning from Delhi and intended to return to Bangladesh.

During interrogation, they confessed that they had stayed illegally in India for the last 14-15 years near Pantha Chowk in Srinagar. They claimed that they fled following a crackdown by Jammu and Kashmir Police against illegally residing Bangladeshi nationals and travelled to Guwahati to find a way back to their country. Police have initiated necessary legal action for the expulsion of the 18 Bangladeshi nationals from India under the provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950.