Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 11: With Central Government going tough on illegal immigrants including Rohingyas, the State authorities too have started regular registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) against new immigrants, interrogating them and then sending them to jails.
This, official sources told the Excelsior, would also serve as deterrent against more arrivals of illegal immigrants to Jammu as a message would go that no part of Jammu was now safe haven for them and their fresh intrusions into this part of the State would stop, which would help the Government to carry out their accurate census, which has been ordered by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
A direction has been given to the authorities to strictly guard against any fresh arrival of Rohingyas in any part of Jammu region, where nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants were believed to have settled at different places. Authorities have been asked to immediately identify the newcomers and register FIR under the Foreigners Act against them at the concerned police station and then subject them to sustained questioning to ascertain the routes taken by them for infiltration and persons who helped them in intruding into the Indian territory,” sources said.
Earlier, the Rohingyas used to come and settle with their countrymen on the outskirts of Jammu, where they have developed their colonies. This gave rise to the number of Rohingyas, which continued to swell and during past about one decade, it went up from just few hundreds to nearly 30,000, sources said.
“The registration of FIRs will help the Government to keep number of Rohingyas static and find out exact number of illegal immigrants, who were mostly confined to Jammu region including Jammu and Samba districts,” sources said.
They added that authorities have also been asked to prepare detailed interrogation report of Rohingyas arrested on their arrival as it would give police clues about the persons, who were facilitating their intrusions into the country and then diverting them to different States including Jammu and Kashmir.
“This will help the Centre prevent their fresh influx by plugging gaps on the borders from where Rohingyas were infiltrating,” they pointed out.
At the same time, the authorities have also directed to ensure that some organizations don’t take law in their hands to target Rohingyas in their localities as there were inputs that they could be targeted amidst growing resentment against their settlement in Jammu.
Meanwhile, the census of Rohingyas was on and authorities were engaged in collecting all data about them including their total numbers in the State, areas where they were putting up, time period since they were here, nature of their work and other related information.
The census report has been sought by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has been preparing data bank of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis across the country and has sought similar information from all the States, where illegal immigrants were putting up.
The Home Ministry has directed the State Government to confine Rohingyas at one place to ensure that they don’t spread to different parts of the States, ensure that they don’t manage to get any document, which helps them claim Indian citizenship and send data bank to the MHA.
After finalization of data bank, the MHA has decided to furnish it to the Ministry of External Affairs for taking up deportation of illegal immigrants with the Governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The issue of illegal settlement of Rohingyas in Jammu and other parts of the country had rocked the Parliament during its just concluded session prompting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju to intervene and assure the House that steps were being taken for their deportation.
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