31 Bangladeshi nationals, who worked in Bengaluru, detained at Guwahati railway station

At least 31 Bangladeshi nationals were on Monday detained in Guwahati in Assam. According to news agency ANI, the Bangladeshi nationals were apprehended while they were planning to return to Bangladesh via Agartala.

The alleged illegal migrants were detained from platform number 1 of Guwahati railway station. The report said that the detained migrants had been working in Bengaluru in Karnataka for the past three years.

This comes just days after a senior Bangladeshi official told news agency PTI that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally assured Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina that people excluded from the National Register of Citizens would not be deported to the country.

Assam: 31 Bangladeshi nationals were apprehended in Guwahati while they were planning to go back to Bangladesh via Agartala.They were held from Guwahati railway station platform No. 1.They had been working in Bengaluru for last 3 years. pic.twitter.com/6HpAmqh4Nr — ANI (@ANI) October 15, 2018

The Supreme-court monitored update of the NRC is an exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals residing in Assam. A political controversy was triggered after the final draft list published on July 30 excluded more than 40 lakh people from the list.

In September, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav had said people excluded from the final list of Assam-specific National Register of Citizens would be de-franchised and deported to their country.

BJP president Amit Shah has also categorically said that each illegal immigrant from Bangladesh would be made to leave the country. He had also triggered a row when he referred to the migrants as “termites”.

"The BJP government will pick out each and every infiltrator," Shah had said last month.

Speaking at another rally, the BJP chief had said, “After forming the government in 2019, the BJP will undertake a nationwide identification of illegal infiltrators living in the country. The illegal infiltrators are acting like termites in this country. They are also causing problems in Delhi. Action against them should not worry any patriot.”

Notably, the Supreme Court has said that government authorities must not take any coercive action against those excluded from the draft Assam NRC. The top court has also asked the government to prepare a standard operating procedure for further course of action.