Silchar: A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrived in Silchar for a probe reportedly in connection with the arrest of 26 Rohingyas in this town recently.
Twenty-six Rohingyas, including 12 children, six men and eight women (from three different families), were detained at Central Road in Silchar town on Saturday night after they failed to show any valid documents. Later, they were arrested, produced before a court and sent to the Silchar detention centre. The police investigation revealed that the foreigners were travelling from Jammu, and were asked to visit Silchar by someone from this town. The probe also revealed that the Rohingyas lived in Jammu for many years.
Sources said the NIA team, which reached Silchar on Thursday, visited the detention centre (Silchar central jail) around noon on Friday and interrogated 14 Rohingyas (six men and eight women Rohingyas) for nearly two hours. The NIA sleuths quizzed them to find their motive behind coming from Jammu to Silchar, how and when they came to India and how they reached Jammu, who helped them to get accommodation in Jammu, where they were planning to go from Silchar and who asked them to come to Silchar, sources said.
Another source said the NIA team, which did not interact with media persons, has obtained important information from the Rohingya inmates after grilling them. Besides, the investigating agency has got information about rackets in Cachar district’s Gumrah and Jellalpore areas which help illegal immigrants enter Indian territory via the Indo-Bangladesh international border in Cachar district in exchange for money, the source claimed.
Cachar police did not divulge much information regarding the NIA team’s visit. Superintendent of police Ramandeep Kaur said the NIA team come to Silchar regarding a previous case, and that the visit had no connection with the arrest of the 26 Rohingyas.
Barak Valley, which shares borders with neighbour Bangladesh in Cachar and Karimganj districts, has witnessed arrests of several Rohingyas in the past few months. Two Rohingyas were apprehended from a bus in Churaibari in the Karimganj district on October 13, 2021. Fifteen Rohingyas, including three women and six minors, were arrested by GRP officials at Badarpur railway station on July 24, 2021.
