Five Rohingyas arrested in Assam

As many as five Rohingya Muslims were arrested on Tuesday morning minutes before they were to board a train to New Delhi.

Based on suspicion, personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) detained five people, including a 24-year-old woman, around 9 am and were subsequently arrested after they failed to produce their identity proof.

They hail from the Rakhine state of Myanmar, which has witnessed ethnic clashes between Buddhists and Rohingiyas since 1997. Thousands of Rohingyas fled Rakhine and crossed the border to neighbouring Bangladesh for shelter. Many of them have also illegally entered India through the border in Manipur and Mizoram.

"One of them had a court paper which showed that they hailed from Myanmar. They also admitted that they are Rohingya Muslims and entered Manipur through the India-Myanmar border. But they could not produce their travel documents. So they were taken into custody and were handed over to government railway police personnel for necessary action. Besides they possessed some items like cigarettes made in Myanmar," an RPF personnel said.

The arrested persons have been identified as Arofa, Md Zuber, Kamal Hussain, Md Nurul Hakim and Md Kalimulla.

They have been booked under the Foreigners Act and the Indian Passport Act.

The Assam Police had arrested six Rohingyas in Cachar district in April this year, weeks after 30 Rohingyas were arrested in the same district.

Railway police personnel have stepped up vigil following reports that Rohingyas and Bangladeshis illegally living in the Northeast are using the railway to reach Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai to avoid arrest by security forces, mainly in Manipur and Assam.