West Bengal: RPF arrests four Rohingyas in Jalpaiguri

Railway Protection Force arrested four Rohingyas at the Jalpaiguri railway station on Monday. They had applied for refugee status but the papers indicated that the validity of their applications had expired in June.

Jalpaiguri (West Bengal):Four Rohingyas belonging to the same family were arrested by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) at the Jalpaiguri railway station on Monday after they disembarked from a Calcutta-bound train.

An RPF officer said the four were carrying letters issued by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) office in New Delhi which showed that they had applied for refugee status. But the papers indicated that the validity of their applications had expired in June.

The arrested persons have been identified as - Mohammad Rafiq, his wife Anowara Begum, their relative Dilbar Begum and a 16-year-old girl. The documents showed that all of them are from Myanmar.

"All the four had been staying at the refugee camp in Kutupalong, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. On July 24, they reached Comilla, Bangladesh, from the camp and crossed into Akhaura in Tripura," RPF Inspector Sunil Kumar said.

"The refugees reached Agartala on July 26 and boarded the Calcutta-bound Kanchenjungha Express the following day. We are finding it tough to converse with them as their language is quite different. We have asked for an interpreter," said Kumar.

Rafiq somehow managed to tell journalists that they were going to Delhi where his neighbours work.

The four were later presented before the Jalpaiguri district court which sent them to police custody.