Acting on an intelligence input received from the Railway Board, Southern Railway has directed Railway Protection Force (RPF) units across all divisions to watch out for movement of huge number of Rohingyas travelling from northeastern states to Kerala, and hand them over to local police.
A letter has been sent by the Chief Security Commissioner of Southern Railway to the divisional security commissioners of Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, and Trichy in this regard on Wednesday. A senior RPF officer told TOI that the alert from the Railway Board spoke exclusively about Rohingya movement from the northeast to Kerala.
The letter has given a list of 14 trains originating from states such as West Bengal and Assam with destinations spread across TN and Kerala. “All Rohingyas are travelling in groups along with their families,” the letter has stated. The list of trains include the Santragachi-Chennai Central Antyodaya Express, Howrah-Kanyakumari Express, Howrah Mail, Guwahati-Trivandrum Superfast Express, and the Shalimar-Trivandrum Exp. These are the trains preferred by labourers to travel from northeastern states to Kerala.
‘If found in trains, hand them over to local police’.
These are the trains preferred by skilled and unskilled labourers of northeastern states to travel to Kerala and Tamil Nadu all through the year.
The letter, which wanted officers be sensitized to the issue, said: “If found in these trains, they may be handed over to the local police. An action taken report should be sent.”
A senior RPF officer confirmed that Railway Board had indicated a security risk over Rohingya after which the alert was sounded off.
Rohingyas are an ethnic Muslim minority group from Myanmar’s Rakhine province. Thousands fled Myanmar to take refuge in neighbouring countries such as India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday called all Rohingyas illegal immigrants and directed the state governments to monitor their movements to enable their deportation to Myanmar.
In August last year, junior home minister Kiren Rijju said the government wanted to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims from the Country.
Courtesy: Times of India
