Shocked by the Burdwan blasts, India’s home ministry says it wants urgent detection and deportation of the illegal foreign nationals living across the country.
Quoting intelligence reports, senior officials at the home ministry said on many occasions the illegal foreign nationals are found to be involved in anti-India activities.
The Oct 2 blasts led to the discovery of a nationwide terror module operated by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
As per the government statistics, in possession of the bdnews24.com, 56,785 foreigners including 4815 Pakistani and 1,541 Bangladeshi are found overstaying in India.
File Photo.
“They come with valid documents but after (the visa) expires, these foreign nationals are found to be overstaying in India,” said a senior home ministry official on condition of anonymity.
Echoing the view, a senior Assam police official stationed in Karimganj district along the India-Bangladesh border said they had come across several such cases where a Bangladeshi national would enter the country “but then disappear from location mentioned in the official documents”.
“Although we carry search operation in specific areas, we don’t find the whereabouts of the person there,” said the police official who did not want to be named.
Although the Union home ministry is vested with the powers to deport a foreign national under section 3(2) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, the powers to identify and deport illegally staying foreign nationals have also been delegated to the state governments.
“The detection and deportation of such illegal immigrants is a continuous process and we keep sending notices to the state governments,” said the home ministry official.
Significantly, in case of Assam the detection and deportation process has some more significance. The state has set up 500 task forces for detection and deportation of illegal migrants staying in Assam.
Assam has also Foreigners Tribunal for detection and deportation of illegal foreigners. In order to ensure speedier disposal of pending cases in the Foreigners Tribunals, 64 more Foreigners Tribunals in addition to existing 36 tribunals has been sanctioned last year.
The All Assam Students Union (AASU), an influential student organisation of Assam, has always been demanding detection and deportation of illegal foreigners living in the state.
In fact, it had spearheaded the Assam agitation movement in the late 70’s against ‘Bangladeshi foreigners’ which ended with an accord (Assam Accord) in 1985.
Source: bdnews24
