In the past six months, the Tripura border is seeing infiltration of two-four Rohingya daily, which is facilitated by touts from sleeper cells in India, top intelligence sources told CNN-News18.
The Rohingya is an ethnic group from Myanmar, previously known as Burma. Most of them live in Rakhine state (previously Arakan). They are considered the “most persecuted minority in the world" by the United Nations. They are primarily Muslim, although a small number identifies itself as Hindu.
“On Tuesday, a group of 20 was detained with the help of Border Security Force (BSF). We managed to push them back to the Bangladesh side," sources said.
“We have managed to collect their mobile devices. Their phones had numbers of touts based in India who are helping in this infiltration," they added.
According to sources, the destination of the Rohingya is not North-Eastern states, but North India and even Bengaluru. “We have found the numbers of eight touts from across India. In phase one, we have arrested them from Tripura," they said. “We want to expand this operation to other parts of India, including Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi or Karnataka. These touts are possibly doing this for money."
The sources added that they are checking if the long-term plan is to create sleeper cells for any terror group.
IN ASSAM ON JULY 31
The Assam Police arrested eight persons, including two Bangladeshi nationals, for arranging fake citizenship documents for Rohingya and Bangladeshis illegally entering India from the neighbouring country, a senior officer said on Monday.
The arrests were made from different districts of Tripura by teams of Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF), he said. “As per the direction of the chief minister to launch operation against linkmen/ touts who help Rohingya to enter India illegally, our five teams were dispatched to various bordering districts of Tripura," STF deputy inspector general Partha Sarathi Mahanta said. The teams were headed by additional or deputy superintendents of police level officers, he added.
Eight persons were arrested in the operations, of whom two are from Bangladesh and rest from Tripura, the DIG said.
Mahanta said the touts used to procure fake identity and travel documents for Rohingya and Bangladeshis to prove they are Indian citizens and help them board trains to different parts of the country. “They facilitate the illegal immigrants to board Kolkata/Delhi/Hyderabad/ Bengaluru-bound trains from Dharmanagar and Kumarghat in Tripura and from Badarpur in Assam. This is a major threat to national security and has the propensity to cause internal disturbance, thus threatening unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country," the police officer said.
He said fake identity documents, such as Aadhaar and PAN cards, and foreign currencies have been recovered from the arrested persons.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said last week that the state is being used as a corridor by the Rohingya to either go to Delhi or Kashmir with the help of some brokers from Tripura.
With PTI Inputs
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