Assam: 17 Bangladeshi nationals arrested for allegedly violating visa norms

Assam’s Biswanath district police arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly violating visa rules on September 17.

Police arrested the Bangladeshi nationals from the Baghmari area under Jinjia police station in Biswanath district which is a remote and riverine area.

According to police, the Bangladeshi national group entered India using a tourist Visa, but they had carried out religious teachings and other religious activities.

“We received information that 17 Bangladeshi nationals are staying at the Baghmari area under the Jinjia police station in Biswanath district for the last 2-3 days and are carrying out religious meetings, and religious activities in the area”, said Navin Singh, Superintendent of Police of Biswanath district.

Singh further added, “They are the members of a particular sector and their leader (Dharmaguru) is also part of this group. We first detained them and verified at the police station and found that they entered India via Cooch Behar on various dates from August”.

According to police the accused visited the South Salmara district of Assam and the police alerted their leader not to organize religious meetings. The accused informed the police that they would not carry out any religious meetings and would proceed to Ajmer Sharif.

“But they again entered into Assam and had taken shelter at Baghmari area in Biswanath district which is a very remote and riverine area. They came on tourist visas and carried out religious teaching and other religious activities. It’s a violation of Visa rules and for that reason, we have registered a case under the Foreigners’ Act and arrested them and will produce them before the court,” Navin Singh said.

According to police, the Bangladeshi national group was led by Sayed Ashraful Alom.

This group carried out similar religious meetings and other religious activities in South Salmara in the last week of August.

Earlier on August 28, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel detained five Bangladeshi nationals for illegally crossing the international border in Assam’s South Salmara Mankachar district on Saturday.

These people crossed the international border inadvertently and were handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on humanitarian grounds as a goodwill gesture, BSF said in a statement.

Earlier on August 18, a similar incident was reported from the same district where two Bangladeshi nationals were sentenced to five years imprisonment. The District and Sessions court of South Salmara Mankachar district convicted two Bangladeshi nationals and sentenced them to five years imprisonment for entering India illegally.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each. The failure the payment the fine will lead to imprisonment of another six months for both.

The two convicted accused have been identified as Abdul Hai and Niranjan Ghosh.

District Public Prosecutor Biswajit Mahanta said, “District and Sessions Judge court convicted two accused persons namely Abdul Hai and Niranjan Ghosh both are hailing from Bangladesh and the court awarded five years of imprisonment to them.”