New Delhi: The eviction drive by the Jammu and Kashmir administration moved beyond notices and demolitions on Monday after it deported 150 Bangladeshi nationals from Kashmir. This is the first-ever publicly documented large-scale deportation from Kashmir.
“The labourers in Kashmir were asked to produce their Aadhaar cards for registration. A mismatch in the data was flagged, following which the details were sent to Bangladesh and their nationality was confirmed. The process was based on intelligence reports and carried out under the Foreigners Act,” a senior police officer told ThePrint. “There are two transit points in West Bengal, Malda and Bagdogra. The BSF then physically escorted them across the border.”
The deportation was carried out on a special Indian Air Force (IAF) plane. In Bagdogra, the Bangladeshi nationals were handed over to the BSF personnel.
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504 Bangladeshi nationals in J&K
The deportation came months after the Centre-appointed High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC), headed by retired Justice Prakash Prabhakar Navalkar, visited Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government created the committee after Prime Minister Modi announced a “High-powered Demography Mission” during his Independence Day address last year.
The committee, formed to examine illegal immigration, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in July before it began its field visit to states and Union Territories. The committee travelled across the Jammu region from 10 August to 12 August. The four-member committee had also visited the Rohingya settlement in Karyani Talab in Narwal.
The committee also recorded 504 Bangladeshi nationals in Jammu and Kashmir, with 46 in Jammu and the remaining 458 in the Kashmir Valley.
J&K is preparing another batch to be deported on 7 October.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)