21 arrested in police action against illegal migrants in Jammu

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWENTY-one people, seven of them married couples, were arrested and many others booked on Tuesday in a major police action against those harbouring Rohingya migrants or facilitating their stay with illegal papers in Jammu, an officer said. The arrests were made from Kishtwar, Ramban, Poonch and Rajouri districts, while 10 Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals were booked in Doda, the officer said. Seven FIRs were registered at different police stations in Jammu where the police parties swooped on the Rohingya slums at over two dozen places and carried out house-to-house searches.

 

“Some locals have provided their plots of land to settle the outside immigrants. We are checking and identifying these facilitators, who are also availing the government benefits for them,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Jammu-Samba-Kathua range, Shakti Pathak, told reporters outside a Rohingya settlement here. Pathak, who was supervising the crackdown, said some 30 locations under seven police stations were searched in the Jammu city. Earlier, a police spokesperson said that seven FIRs were lodged at Satwari, Trikuta Nagar, Bagh-e-Bahu, Channi Himmat, Nowabad, Domana and Nagrota police stations against people accused of providing shelter to the foreign immigrants.

 

During these searches, which were conducted in the presence of the magistrates, police seized illegally acquired Indian documents like PAN and Aadhaar cards and bank documents. “Investigation into the matter has started and other details will be shared subsequently. Stringent action in the future shall be taken against all such defaulters,” the spokesperson said. Six men and their Rohingya wives were among 13 persons arrested from Kishtwar’s Dachhan area.