NEW DELHI, June 3: The Gujarat Police have detained 362 undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants and questioned more than 782 suspected foreign nationals during a State-wide crackdown under the overnight “Operation Delta Hunt” launched on Tuesday night.
The development came days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had made such an announced in Gandhinagar. The operation was carried out across Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara and several other parts of the State. Officials said it was an ongoing operation with more raids in the offing. According to the State government, those detained so far include 103 men, 188 women and 71 children.
In Ahmedabad alone, around 300 suspected Bangladeshi nationals were rounded up during the drive. Of them, 155 have so far been confirmed as Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in India, including 41 men, 95 women and 30 children. Surat accounted for 84 detentions, followed by Ahmedabad Rural with 34, East Kutch-Gandhidham with 13 and Bharuch with 12.
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal said the operation was planned following a high-level meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi, during which officials reviewed inputs regarding illegal Bangladeshi immigration into Gujarat.
Police said more than 30 teams comprising personnel from the Crime Branch, the Special Operations Group (SOG) and local police stations in Naroda, Danilimda, Vatva, Vatva GIDC and Juhapura were deployed.
They said several detained women were allegedly working in spas, while many of the men were employed as laborers or involved in rag-picking. Some were found to have entered India only a few months ago, while others had allegedly been residing in the State for several years.
Preliminary investigations revealed that some detainees had fraudulently obtained Aadhaar cards and other identity documents. “Interrogations are underway to determine how they managed to obtain these documents, how money was transferred, what kind of work they were engaged in, and the routes used to enter the country illegally,” officials said.
Authorities said the detained individuals would be shifted to the Joint Integration Center in Naroda, following which deportation proceedings would be initiated as per established protocols.
The operation was coordinated, with simultaneous raids across cities and checkpoints set up at bus stations, railway stations, highways and key exit routes to prevent escape attempts. Officials said around 18 suspected infiltrators trying to flee were intercepted during the operation.
Investigators have also found that some detainees entered India through different villages and regions of West Bengal two to four years ago or even earlier, and later obtained local documents through intermediaries before securing official identity papers. The wider network behind this was under investigation.
Director General of Police Dr KLN Rao said the operation was driven by technical intelligence and field verification. Telecom analysis, supported by the Cyber Center of Excellence, helped create a database of Indian mobile numbers that had communicated with Bangladeshi numbers. This led to the identification of more than 6,200 suspected individuals, enabling field units to take coordinated action against illegal networks, he said.
Officials said the Operation Delta Hunt will continue across Gujarat in the coming days, with further verification, detentions and deportation proceedings expected. They said the Ahmedabad police had deported 465 Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in the city last year.
(Rohit Kumar)
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