Two Rohingya women arrested in Manipur's Jiribam , fake Indian voter ID cards seized

Imphal: Two Rohingya women were reportedly arrested  after their vehicle was intercepted in the Gularthola area in Jiribam district on Monday.

The Manipur police said the women were identified as Kushida Begum, 19, and Khalida Begum, 20. Both hail from Buthidang Rakhine in Myanmar. The police recovered fake Indian voter ID cards and other items from them.

The voter ID cards recovered from the arrested women are in the names of  Haoyarun Nessa (20-year-old), daughter of Join Uddin and Nenai Bibi (22-year-old), daughter of Akaddach Ali of Gamariya village under Ramkrishnanagar police station in Assam’s Karimganj district.

“The arrests were made following an information received over telephone that two women, suspected to be illegal immigrants,  have passed Jiribam Foreigners Check post stealthily in an Imphal-bound Cruiser passenger vehicle. All the check posts were immediately alerted following the message,” said Jiribam district Superintendent of Police M Mubi Singh. 

He added that during a regular checking the cruiser passenger vehicle bearing registration number AS-10C-2582 was intercepted and the two women passengers were detained for verification.

During interrogation, Both admitted that they are Rohingiya Muslims from Myanmar.  “We have recovered fake Indian voter ID cards and other items from their possession. Coming from Assam’s Silchar town, they were heading for Imphal to be received by an unknown person," Singh said.

The top official of Manipur police said that the arrested Rohingya women had illegally resided in Assam’s Cachar and Karimganj district for a month after infiltrating into India from Bangladesh side via Tripura.

“The identification of the traffickers are under progress,” M Mubi Singh said. A case (no 51(11)2018) has been registered under section14A(b) of Foreigners Act at Jiribam police station.

In September this year, the Manipur police had arrested a couple, alleged to be the masterminds in the trafficking of Rohingyas from Myanmar into Manipur.

The Manipur police have so far arrested 18 Rohingya Muslims from different parts of the state this year.

Recently, the Assam government  deported seven Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar via the Moreh border in Manipur. Around 25 Myanmar nationals are still lodged in various detention camps in Assam. Among them, 18 are lodged in Tezpur detention camp, while six are in Silchar and one is in Goalpara.