Guwahati: As many as 17 Bangladeshi citizens have been arrested in Assam’s Biswanath Chariali district for violating their tourist visa norms as they allegedly conducted religious preaching.
They 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.
They are led by Syed Ashraful Alam. Police said he’d been warned against religious preaching, which is not allowed on tourist visa, last month too.
“There is no tourist attraction in the Baghmari area. That’s why we sought to know why these foreigners were here. They are members of a particular sect. We also verified details of those who accompanied them for their religious preaching. They entered Assam in batches on different dates,” a senior police official said.
They came to India in groups too, since August 24.