The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said that they arrested six persons, including a man from Assam, who was operating a human trafficking racket from Bengaluru and was helping Rohingya refugees settle in India with forged documents.
The NIA said "mastermind" of the racket, Kumkum Ahmed Chaudhury alias Asiqul Ahmed, a resident of South Assam's Cachar district was arrested from Bengaluru on Friday. The racket was active in areas in Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal sharing borders with Bangladesh. "Other active members of this racket are spread in various parts of the country," the NIA said in a statement.
The NIA officer, however, did not disclose the exact place in Bengaluru from where Chaudhary was arrested. The agency also refused to divulge details about the modus operandi of the alleged network saying an investigation was underway to unearth details along with evidence.
But police officials in Assam, who had arrested several Rohingya refugees in the past told DH that they illegally cross the India-Bangladesh borders in Tripura and then board trains from South Assam (Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi district). "There is a racket who help such people not only to cross the border through the unfenced stretches but help them make forged documents like PAN cards, Aadhar cards and fake refugee certificates similar to the ones issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They are taken out by trains to cities like Bengaluru and New Delhi and are engaged in various works," said a police officer in Assam. Many Rohingya women are also engaged in flesh trade, he said.
Thousands of Rohingyas fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar and took shelter in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh following ethnic clashes between the ethnic Buddhists and Islamic Rohingyas since 1997. Some even entered India through Indo-Myanmar borders in Mizoram and Manipur.
The case related to the illegal entry of Rohingyas was handed over to the NIA in December last year after several of them were arrested in Assam, Tripura and Bengal. DH had also reported about the arrest of several Rohingyas by railway police in Assam and BSF in Tripura. Guwahati-based office of the NIA registered the case under Section 370 (trafficking) and 370 (A) (trafficking for sexual exploitation) of IPC.
Police stepped up vigil against Rohingyas after the Union Home Ministry told the Parliament in July last year that all foreigners staying in India without travel documents, including the Rohingyas, would be considered as a "threat to national security."
Five other persons arrested by the NIA are Sahalam Laskar alias Alam Laskar, Ahiya Ahmed Choudhury, Bapan Ahmed Choudhury, Jamaluddin Ahmed Choudhury, all from Cachar in Assam and Wanbiang Suting of East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya.
The NIA carried out searches at several places in Assam, Meghalaya and Bengaluru on Friday in connection with the case. "During the searches conducted, a large number of incriminating documents, articles and digital devices have been seized," said the statement issued by the NIA.
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