Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Police, in an operation that began at 3 am on Saturday, detained 1,024 Bangladesh nationals allegedly living illegally in two major cities of Ahmedabad and Surat. Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi called this midnight action “a historic victory” for the Gujarat Police and said the force had shown “red eyes” to those staying illegally in Gujarat.
Notably, while this detention action comes in the wake of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam of Kashmir for which the Government of India has roundly blamed Pakistan, all the persons detained in Gujarat on Saturday are alleged to be Bangladesh nationals. A senior officer in Ahmedabad said early on Saturday morning, “Today morning, starting from 3 am, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, along with teams from the SOG, EOW, Zone 6, and Headquarters, organized a combing operation to apprehend foreign immigrants residing illegally in Ahmedabad city.
During this operation, more than 400 suspicious immigrants have been detained.” However, this number rose to 890 by noon. Most of the people were picked up from Chandola lake area of Ahmedabad City. Later in the morning, a statewide police meeting was conducted via video conference with Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Vikas Sahay joining from Ahmedabad, while MoS Home Harsh Sanghavi joined from Surat.
Speaking after the meeting, Minister Sanghavi said, “Gujarat Police have achieved a historic victory. Ahmedabad police have detained 890 illegal Bangladeshis, and Surat police have detained 134 of them. This is the biggest operation of the Gujarat Police to date, in which illegally residing citizens have been shown ‘red eye’ by the police.
These Bangladeshis come through (West) Bengal illegally by making fake documents and reach Gujarat and other states of India. Sanghavi warned all other illegal immigrants to surrender themselves to local police stations. He said, “The investigation of the background and activities of all these Bangladeshis is underway and I want to give them a clear message.