Kolkata, Jan 13 (IANS) Five Bangladeshi infiltrators, who had been residing at Sonarpur in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district for the last one year since they illegally crossed the border, were arrested on Monday, police said.
They were to be presented before a district court later in the day and the public prosecutor was to seek police custody.
Police are currently interrogating them and trying to find out how they illegally crossed the border and what was their motive behind coming and settling in West Bengal.
The owner of the house where these Bangladeshi infiltrators had been residing for the last year is currently absconding.
All the local police stations have been alerted to track him.
The neighbours informed the police that these five persons hardly used to interact with the local people and hence were hardly aware of their antecedents.
However, insiders from state police said, the event of the owner of the house going absconding raises doubts that there is some deep-rooted conspiracy behind the entire development.
Sources said that all the five arrested are males and they even managed to get jobs at a local garments factory by virtue of their fake Indian documents.
The investigating officials are also questioning them to know where they managed to secure these fake Indian identity documents.
South 24 Parganas district has a large coastal border with Bangladesh in the Sundarban area. The remote islands there often act as the initial shelter for the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators coming there. Security agencies, central and state, have recently identified some of these islands. The most vulnerable islands identified on this count are the 13 in the Gosaba block in the district considering the lack of security arrangements there because of their remote nature.
As per reports, the Border Security Force (BSF) has its camp in just one of these 13 islands, which are often used as temporary shelters by the fishermen from the district frequently venturing to the deep seas.
–IANS
src/vd
