Yogi Adityanath’s police have begun “door-to-door” surveys across Uttar Pradesh to identify Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees and put them in detention centres, multiple sources including a mayor and two senior police officers said.
Akash Kulhari, inspector-general (IG) of police, Jhansi range, confirmed that the state government had in a November 22 order directed the surveys and the establishment of detention centres.
Critics said the crackdown was an anti-minority measure by a party whose governments have been hounding Bengali-speaking Muslims across the country.
“According to the order, we’ll also make a detention centre in Jhansi. Illegal migrants living in Lalitpur, Jhansi and Jalaun districts (Bundelkhand region) will be kept there until they are sent back to their countries,” Kulhari told reporters on Friday.
Agra deputy commissioner of police Syed Ali Abbas claimed the city’s municipal corporation itself harboured illegal immigrants.
“We have a list of 3,000
such people employed by the Nagar Nigam,” he said. “Initial reports suggest that several private outsourcing companies have also hired such people in Agra.”
He added: “Our teams, including members of the local intelligence units, are going door to door to identify them. We’ll also check their crime records.”
Lucknow mayor Sushma Kharakwal claimed many Bangladeshis and Rohingya people worked as conservancy staff for the city’s civic body — which she heads — while giving evasive replies on why their antecedents had not earlier been verified.
Home department sources said an intelligence-based estimate of illegal immigrants, carried out at the state government’s behest two years ago, had counted 10 lakh aliens, of them 6,000 in Lucknow and Agra.
Asked what action was taken, they said nothing was done, indicating problems with identification. This survey, they claimed, would yield better results because it is being conducted “door
to door”.
Senior officers, too, used the term but none explained how the police would garner the manpower required for a statewide door-to-door drive.
Some observers feared that the label of “door-to-door” was being used to add credence
to a crackdown by a state government widely seen as hostile to minorities.
Kharakwal, the Lucknow mayor, claimed she had begun working to identify the “intruders” weeks before the November 22 order was issued.
“I began a search operation a few weeks ago and initiated the process for the deportation of 50 families,” she told reporters on Wednesday, without providing details.
“Later, when we intensified our search, 160 conservancy staff of the Lucknow Nagar Nigam ran away from here. They didn’t want to submit their identity proof and other details. We believe they were Rohingya, and had secured their local identity cards on the basis of forged documents.”
Asked whether the civic body had verified their Aadhaar cards, she said: “They ran away before we could check this properly. But we have their details and are still crosschecking.”
She added: “Some of them claim to be from Assam. If they have identity proof from Assam, we will check their details on the National Register of Citizens.”
Kharakwal claimed that most of the staff who had run away were criminals.
Under the government order, the lists of illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees are to be handed over to the divisional commissioners and IGs. Sources said vacant and unused government buildings, including community centres and police stations, would be converted into detention centres.
A home department official, who asked not to be quoted, said the administration expected to complete the crackdown by March next year.
Samajwadi Party president Akilesh Yadav said the drive was nothing but a reflection of the BJP’s “hatred against
a community”.