The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) posted at the India-Nepal border in Panitanki of Siliguri subdivision on Saturday apprehended six suspected Myanmarese nationals without valid papers.
Sources said that troopers of the SSB 41st battalion posted at Panitanki, which connects Kakarvitta in Nepal, some 45km from here, intercepted the suspected Myanmarese students while they were trying to cross the border to visit an adventure parkin Nepal.
SSB sources said that they suspected that the six were from Myanmar but would not confirm it as of now.
The SSB personnel nabbed three students first and three others after a while.
All six were travelling in groups with some students, sources said.
During their preliminary investigation, SSB officers learnt that the six youths, who are between 25 and 30 years old, had entered Mizoram in India in 2022 and 2023 without any passport or visa.
“They had even obtained fraudulently prepared Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards, and one of them had a fake PAN card. Most of these documents had been made in Delhi,” said a source.
All six of them had enrolled at the Witter Theological College in Vankhosung in Wokha of Nagaland in 2023 for a degree course in theology, the source said.
“They had come to Siliguri on a holiday with Indian and Nepali students of the same institution and were traveling in three groups. They were planning to go to an adventure park in Nepal’s Birtamod when they were nabbed,” the source added.
Currently, the SSB officers are interrogating them on why they had infiltrated India without valid documents.
They will be handed over to the police in due course for further legal proceedings, sources said.