Guwahati, Sept 18: A day after a group of 17 Bangladeshi citizens were arrested in Biswanath district of Assam for violating norms of their tourist visas as they allegedly carried out religious preaching, Assam Police has made startling revelations that there is a growing trend of Bangladeshi clerics violating tourist visa norms and holding religious meets in remote areas.
Some of them have violated visa norms despite past warnings. Assam has also written to the Centre about these frequent violations of tourist Visa norms by Bangladeshi clerics.
“There is a tendency specially lower sum and Barak Valley, some Bangladeshi Mullas… they come in, the moulavis etc. they (are) called or invited. And they come on tourist visa and we found some mashvara (religious advice) that they do. You have some of the Bangladeshi people coming on tourist visas and doing things that are not very nice. In fact, radicalisation is being spread (by) wrongly using tourist visas. So we have told them that Assam police is going to be strict. Unfortunately or fortunately, whatever in Biswanath district, the other day we got a tip of 17 person from Bangladesh origin have been come on tourist visa. And so we have asked them what kind of tourism are you in – Are you going to visit Kaziranga? Because Kaziranga is not very far away. Because Kaziranga is not being allowed this time. (About) Other places of tourism in Assam… they are not going anywhere here but they are doing religious preaching. I am not saying that they were doing radicalisation preaching, they are doing religious preaching which is not as per the term of the visa. Therefore, unfortunately, we had to arrest them despite them being foreign people. Now Assam police is strict… they have violated the visa condition,” said Assam DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.
On Saturday, 17 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested from the remote Baghmari area in the Gingia region of Biswanath district. They had visited Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan and also places in Cooch Behar district in Bengal before coming to Assam. 2 Indian nationals have also been arrested for helping the Bangladeshis violate visa rules, police sources added.
“There are a whole lot of mullas who are being banned from coming into Assam. Because they have repeatedly come on tourist visa and indulged in religious preaching. Some of the preachings were about radicalization, which is not good for Assam and the country. In the earlier cases, we have written and we have become successful and we ensure that they do not come again. In this particular case also, we are going to write again to MEA,” Mahanta added.
