Seven Rohingya refugees including six women, who had illegally crossed into India from Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, were arrested by Railway Protection Force personnel at New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal on Wednesday.
Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) based in Guwahati, Sabyasachi De said the seven were detained after they were found moving suspiciously in the station compound.
"On preliminary enquiry, they revealed that they were residing at Camp No. 5 near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. They illegally crossed the Bangladesh - India Border and came to Kumarghat Railway Station in Tripura and boarded train No. 13174, Kanchanjunga Express on 15th March 15 to Sealdah," De said in a statement on Thursday.
He said that they were waiting to board Purvottar Samprak Kranti Express train bound for New Delhi when they were arrested. They were handed over to Government Railway Police for action as per law.
The arrest comes amid an investigation by National Investigation Agency (NIA) to unearth a racket allegedly settling Rohingya refugees into India with forged documents and women being sexually exploited.
The NIA on March 11 arrested six persons from Assam, who are allegedly involved in the racket active in border areas in Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal. The agency said that "mastermind" of the racket, Kumkum Ahmed Chaudhury alias Asiqul Ahmed, a resident of South Assam's Cachar district was arrested from Bengaluru on March 11. Choudhury was allegedly operating the network from Bengaluru, with some more members spread in various parts of the country.
Police officials in Assam, who had arrested several Rohingya refugees in the past said that Rohingya refugees illegally cross the India-Bangladesh borders in Tripura and then board trains from South Assam (Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts). They are taken out by trains to cities like Bengaluru and New Delhi and are engaged in various works. Some Rohingya women are also engaged in flesh trade, they said.
Thousands of Rohingyas fled Rakhaine 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.
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