Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 25, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_/Myanmarese_on_way_to_JK_held/articleshow/3888743.cms
Thirty-two Myanmarese nationals were arrested
from the Kolkata railway station on Wednesday morning while they were trying
to board the Jammu Tawi Express.
Apart from 25 men, four women and three children
were in the group. None of them had valid documents to show that they had
crossed over into India legally. Authorities are now trying to ascertain whether
they are members of the Rohingya community from the Arakan region of Myanmar.
The arrest sent ripples in the police headquarters
at Lalbazar because some members of this community are known to receive arms
training in camps run by the HuJI and then return to Myanmar to fight the
military junta there. Some of them remain with the HuJI.
"The group was trying to board an unreserved
compartment of the Jammu-Tawi Express when they were stopped by RPF and GRP
personnel. During interrogation, they claimed they were daily wage earners
on their way to Jammu and that they had entered India through the Ghojadanga
border in North 24-Parganas with Bangladesh. We will interrogate them further,"
said Barun Mallick, superintendent of railway police, Sealdah.
Security agencies suspect the Myanmarese nationals
may have been living in Bangladesh as refugees and then crossed over to India.
Police have also managed to get their hands on three touts Mainul Gazi, Hamid
Hossain and Nur Hossein. Another agent, Khokon, managed to escape. The three
are being grilled to find out whether they have arranged such trips for Bangladeshis
earlier. Police suspect the touts may also have helped hardcore terrorists
in crossing over from Bangladesh.
This is not the first time Myanmarese nationals
have been held in India while planning to cross over into Pakistan. In October,
2007, the BSF in the R S Pura Sector of Jammu and Kashmir, had nabbed 27 Myanmarese
nationals trying to enter Pakistan. They had claimed that they had been living
as refugees in Bangladesh before entering India.
