Biometric details, verification of illegal settlers begin in Jammu

Over 155 Rohingyas sent to Hiranagar Jail; more being shifted

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday began a drive to collect biometric and other details of Rohingyas staying in Jammu, officials said, adding that over 155 were sent to a ‘Holding Centre’ at Sub Jail Hiranagar by invoking Section 3(2)e Foreigners Act.
“The immigrants were not holding valid travel documents required under Section (3) of the Passports Act”, the officials added.
The Rohingyas are a Bengali-dialect speaking Muslim minority in Myanmar. Following persecution in their country, many of them entered India illegally through Bangladesh and took shelter in Jammu and other parts of India.
The verification process of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar was carried out at the MAM College on Saturday amid high security.
Under the drive, their biometric and other details, such as place of stay, were collected, the officials said.
“We filled up forms and our fingerprints were taken,” Abdul Hanan, a Rohingya, told reporters.
Last week, Trikuta Nagar police had carried out raids at several localities inhabited by illegally settled Rohingyas to find out various documents like Aadhars, PAN cards and passports managed by them through fraudulent means.
Two Rohingyas identified as Maulvi Abdul Ghafur, son of Abdul Jabbar Moolta, presently staying at Rahim Nagar and Aashiq ur Rehman, residing in Bathindi were arrested as fake cards were recovered from their possession.

Soon after their arrest, Trikuta Nagar police started investigations to unearth the nexus operating to manage fake cards for these Rohingyas
Many Jammu-based social organisations, have time to time urged the government to take immediate steps for the deportation of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis alleging that their presence is a “conspiracy to alter the demographic character” of the region and “a threat to the peace in the region”.
More than 13,700 foreigners, including Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi nationals, are settled in Jammu and Samba districts, where their population has increased by over 6,000 between 2008 and 2016, according to government data.
In 2017, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly was told in a written reply that as many as 5,743 Burmese (Rohingyas) are staying in the then state.
“They entered the state on their own and are staying at various places in the districts of Jammu and Samba,” the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who held the charge of the Home Department, said.
The then Chief Minister had also disclosed that the number of other foreigners staying in the state had gone up to 322 in 2016 from 119 in 2002.
Amid widespread resentment over the stay of Rohingyas in Jammu, the then CM had made a sensation disclosure that there were three Madrassas in Jammu and 24 teachers had been deployed there for Rohingyas. However, 17 FIRs have been registered against 38 Rohingyas for various offences, Mehbooba had said.
She had admitted that some NGOs, namely Sakhawat and SR Institute of Development in Srinagar, Delhi-based Daji and Save the Children were helping the Rohingyas in cash and kind from time to time. “However, strict surveillance is being kept on the activities of these foreigners and the organisations extending help to them,” she had stated.