Bangladeshis enter Assam armed with Indian Aadhaar cards now!

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A new trend of sorts has been set—Bangladeshis now enter Assam illegally equipped with Indian Aadhaar cards! The Assam Police arrested 14 Bangladeshis from South Salmara and Karinganj districts. Strangely enough, nine of them have Indian Aadhaar cards. How does it become possible? A million-dollar question.

A few days ago, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that in certain districts in Assam, the number of Aadhaar cards issued surpassed their projected populations. Citing an example, the Chief Minister said 103 percent of people got Aadhaar cards issued in the Dhubri district that shares a border with Bangladesh. In the Barpeta district also, 103 percent of people got Aadhaar cards, and in Nagaon and Morigaon districts, 101 percent of people got Aadhaar cards.

The Assam government moved the Central government on the issue of Aadhaar cards more than the projected populations in some districts. The Centre has approved the state government to set certain conditions to be fulfilled by Aadhaar card applicants. The new conditions will be in force from this month. The new conditions are: (i) the applicants for Aadhaar cards will have to mention the application number for the inclusion of his or her name in the NRC, and (ii) an NOC issued by the district commissioner concerned is a must for the issuance of an Aadhaar card.

Based on an intelligence report, the police arrested 14 Bangladeshis from two bordering districts of South Salmara and Karimganj. They are Ariful Islam, Monir Hussain, Mofazel Hussain, Mazanur Rahman, Ashraful Islam, Manik Miyan, Prophet Hussain, Waliul Ullah, Hazarat Ali, Safiqul Islam, Mominul Haque, Anwar Hussain, Iland Ali, and Abyadullah Hussain. 

According to official sources, ever since a tense situation erupted in Bangladesh, the border police have been maintaining a strict vigil along the border, leading to the arrest of 108 illegal migrants so far. Many of the arrested migrants have been pushed back to Bangladesh.

“Of late, a section of brokers has been working overtime to provide fake Indian documents to Bangladeshis so as to provide them passage to enter India. Some of the brokers have been arrested. They have admitted that they help Bangladeshis in entering India and going to different states of India by providing them train tickets for money,” an official said.

A source in the Home Department said, “Strengthening efforts to detect illegal migrants’ entering Assam from Bangladesh, the Assam Police Border Organisation is, hereby, directed to take all necessary preventive and precautionary measures to intensify detection and proactively curb the movement of illegal migrants, and increased patrolling and surveillance in areas under the jurisdiction of border outposts to detect and prevent illegal border crossings. We have asked the border guards for information sharing between the BSF and other central agencies.”

Also Read: Assam CM Sarma: 17 Bangladeshi Nationals, Including 8 Children, Pushed Back Amid Crackdown on Infiltration (sentinelassam.com)

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