Rajasthan’s Ajmer is one of the many cities in India where the greatest number of illegal Bangladeshis have created whole settlements. As per a recent survey, a settlement of more than ten thousand illegal Bangladeshis is thriving in the Khwaja Moinuddin Dargah area of the city. Many have also been able to get their voter IDs and ration cards made.
Apart from the dargah area, a large number of Bangladeshis with fake identities have settled down in places like Sarwad, Tonk, Nagaur and other areas nearby. The people who have given them shelters are the local ones, living in the dargah area and the areas near the hills around the Taragarh Fort.
These illegal Bangladeshis, who have constructed illegal houses on the hills can be seen in local areas of Nayi Sadak, Andarkot, Laungiya, and Jaliyan Kabristan. Till now, most of these encroachers have been nabbed from the Dargah area only. But the ration cards and voter IDs are being produced for them with political support.
Over the last 20 years, 2500 illegal settlers from Bangladesh have been nabbed by Ajmer police and the CID and have been pushed on the other side of the border. But what is startling is that with every year, the numbers related to the illegals being caught and identified are getting dwindled.
During the last 5 years, only 18 illegal Bangladeshis got caught in Ajmer, while in the last decade, this number was between 50 and 80 every year. According to the statistics of the CID zone responsible for nabbing these illegal Bangladeshis, the CID’s counter-intelligence team caught 101 illegal Bangladeshis in 2010, 48 in 2011, 30 in 2012, 52 in 2013, 32 in 2014, 46 in 2015, 23 in 2016, 28 in 2017, 7 each in 2018 and 19, 2 in 2020, none in 2021 and 2 in 2022 till now.
Encroachment by illegal Bangladeshis in Ajmer is augmenting by the day and it has been proven that they are involved in crimes as well, mainly in the Dargah area.
Once the intruders are caught, the CID and other secret investigative agencies interrogate them and then they are handed over to the local police station of the area. Then the illegal settler is produced in court and sent to jail. When a large number of illegal settlers get grouped in the jail, they are handed over to the BSF on the Bainapur and Hilli borders.
From there, they are sent back to Bangladesh via road and all these activities cost around 8 to 10 thousand for sending each illegal settler back to where they belong and this cost is borne by the central government.
