168 Rohingya illegals sent to jail: Officials

Jammu, March 7

Authorities here have sent 168 Rohingya Muslims to jail after they were found living illegally in the city, officials said on Sunday.

The Jammu and Kashmir Administration on Saturday had begun a drive to collect biometric and other details of the Rohingya staying here. The drive is part of an exercise to trace foreigners living in the city without valid documents. “At least 168 illegal immigrant Rohingya have been sent to Hiranagar jail,” a senior police officer told the media here.

The verification process of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar was carried out at the MAM Stadium here amid high security, the officials said, adding further verification of the foreigners is going on, they added. Under the drive on Saturday, biometric and other details, such as place of stay, of the Ronhingya were collected, the officials said. The Rohingya 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. Many political parties and social organisations in Jammu had urged the Centre to take immediate steps for the deportation of the Rohingya. — PTI