Dispur, Sept 19: Assam's Biswanath district police arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly violating visa rules on Sept 17. Police arrested the Bangladeshi nationals from the Baghmari area under Jinjia police station in Biswanath district, which is a remote and riverine area.
According to police, the Bangladeshi national group entered India using a tourist Visa, but they had carried out religious teachings and other religious activities. "We received information that 17 Bangladeshi nationals are staying at the Baghmari area under the Jinjia police station in Biswanath district for the last 2-3 days and are carrying out religious meetings, and religious activities in the area", said Navin Singh, Superintendent of Police of Biswanath district.
Singh further added, "They are the members of a particular sector and their leader (Dharmaguru) is also part of this group. We first detained them and verified at the police station and found that they entered India via Cooch Behar on various dates from August". According to police the accused visited the South Salmara district of Assam and the police alerted their leader not to organize religious meetings. The accused informed the police that they would not carry out any religious meetings and would proceed to Ajmer Sharif.
According to police, the Bangladeshi national group was led by Sayed Ashraful Alom. This group carried out similar religious meetings and other religious activities in South Salmara in the last week of August. Earlier on Aug 28, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel had detained five Bangladeshi nationals for illegally crossing the international border in Assam's South Salmara Mankachar district on Saturday (Sept 17).