Ahmedabad Police detains, interrogates 290 allegedly undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants

The Ahmedabad Police on Wednesday said that more than 290 persons suspected of being undocumented Bangladeshi migrants had been detained for questioning following verification drives in different parts of the city.

According to police officials, 131 individuals were formally detained, while around 160 others were being interrogated. The action followed search and verification operations conducted on Tuesday night in the Chandola, Gulabnagar and Khodiyarnagar areas of Ahmedabad.

Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal reportedly said that the operations were launched based on intelligence inputs. During the searches, police teams examined identity documents, verified personal details and carried out preliminary inquiries to determine whether those questioned possessed valid documents authorising their stay in India, Scroll.in reported.

Authorities were also scrutinising documents such as Aadhaar cards and voter identity cards to ascertain whether any of them had been forged.

Since the April 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam, police forces in several states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party have reportedly conducted drives targeting Bengali-speaking individuals, many of them Muslims, and sought proof of their Indian citizenship.

Reports have indicated that some persons were sent to Bangladesh after allegedly failing to establish their citizenship status. In certain instances, however, individuals who had been mistakenly deported were later allowed to return after Indian authorities verified that they were Indian citizens.

There have also been reports of deported persons being brought back to India after authorities were found to have not followed the procedures prescribed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for such deportations.