11 Bangladeshi nationals arrested in 2 separate cases

In two separate incidents, the North 24 Parganas Police arrested 11 Bangladeshi nationals on charges of illegally crossing the Indo-Bangla border on Tuesday.

Ten of them, including three women, were arrested from Swarupnagar. One other person was arrested from Basirhat's Panitor. Police seized Indian and Bangladeshi currencies as well as mobile phones from the accused persons. The investigators learnt that they were trying to go to Rajarhat where they were assigned jobs at a construction site. "We have interrogated them and they claimed that they are construction workers and had come here for jobs at a construction site in Rajarhat," said a police officer. Police are, however, verifying their statements. Police are also investigating if they were involved in anti-national activities. Several cases had taken place in the past when Bangladeshi nationals were caught by the police from the border. District police are working with National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate such cases.

It should be recalled that North 24 Parganas Police had recently arrested nine Bangladeshi nationals, including a woman, from Anantapur area in Basirhat for illegally intruding on to the Indian territory. The accused persons, however, told the police that they were going to Chennai to work as daily labourers. They had crossed the border with the help of a tout. "Most of the people cross the border to get employment here. They generally try to go to Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and even other places in India to get jobs. Most of these people are construction workers and daily labourers," the officer added.

"Hingalgange is one such area where similar incidents occurred frequently in the past. But now such incidents are happening at Swarupnagar. We have arrested around 50 Bangladeshi nationals from Swarupnagar in the last six months," the officer added.