On Thursday, October 12, the Uttar Pradesh ATS busted a human trafficking racket and arrested three Bangladeshi natives for helping illegal migrants from Bangladesh get forged Indian identity documents and illegally settle in India. The trio arrested from Deoband, Saharanpur were identified as Najibul Sheikh and Abu Hurayara, both residents of 24 Parganas, West Bengal, while the third accused was identified as Adil Mohammed Ashrafi alias Adil-ur-Rehman, a resident of Mirpur, Bangladesh.
The accused, as per reports, were running a full-fledged human trafficking syndicate and had helped facilitate the illegal immigration of several Rohingyas and Bangladeshis and settled them in Uttar Pradesh. They had received foreign funding to the tune of Rs 20 crore to further their mission.
The UP ATS recovered Rs 1.5 crores from the bank accounts of the accused. Besides, the police also recovered three mobile phones, forged Indian passport passports, PAN cards, Aadhaar cards and Bangladeshi sim cards from their possession.
The police sent them to jail after booking them under multiple charges of fraud, cheating, impersonation and violations of the Passports Act. They were also charged with encouraging anti-national activities by providing them funds illegally by violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
ATS revealed that members of this human trafficking syndicate used to bring Bangladeshi citizens across the border to India and settle them here. The trio used to make fake Indian citizenship-related documents for this purpose. They had received Rs 20 crore as aid in the last three years to carry out their mission.
ATS ADG Mohit Aggarwal said that the Varanasi unit of ATS had received information in this regard. ATS learned that syndicate member Adil Mohammad Ashrafi alias Adil ur Rehman is planning to go from West Bengal to Delhi or Saharanpur. After this, the team took action and caught him in Varanasi. A fake Aadhaar card and passport were recovered from him.
During interrogation, Adil said that he is a resident of Bangladesh and has been living in UP for a long time. He added that he had got these documents with the help of Sheikh Najibul Haq and Abu Huraira Ghazi, residents of West Bengal. He said that both of them are currently living in Saharanpur of UP. Based on this information, ATS nabbed both of them from Saharanpur. All three confessed to their crime during interrogation.
Both of the Bangladeshi nationals detained in Saharanpur admitted to fabricating documents for Mohammad Habibullah Masbah aka Najeeb, a Bangladeshi national. A few days ago, Habibullah was detained in Saharanpur.
The probe also turned up evidence that some NGOs’ FCRA accounts received Rs 20 crore from abroad. The money was being sent under the guise of aiding madarsas and schools but was being utilized as a tool for human trafficking. This syndicate was using this money for illegal infiltration, making fake documents, providing asylum and anti-India activities.
Uttar Pradesh crackdown on illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants
Notably, the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh have launched a statewide crackdown on illegal Rohingya immigrants who have been living illegally in the state. In July this year, UP ATS detained as many as 74 Rohingya immigrants from several districts in the state. According to reports, 31 Rohingyas were detained from Mathura, 17 from Aligarh, 16 from Hapur, four each from Ghaziabad and Meerut and two from Saharanpur. The detained Rohingya immigrants include 55 men, 14 women and five children.
Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 74 Rohingya refugees in collaboration with UP police. Case registered against them. pic.twitter.com/bv6hrYSBop
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) July 24, 2023
Likewise, on April 17, the UP ATS arrested a Rohingya woman Fatime alias Amina and her three daughters- Rihana, Gulshan, and Arshi after receiving a tip from informers. They had come from Bangladesh to India around seventeen years ago by obtaining fake Aadhaar cards, voter cards, and other Indian documents.
