'Illegal Bangla migrants must be put in camps'

New Delhi, May 19: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has claimed that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led Central government had suggested putting illegal Bangladeshi migrants in "transit camps" for their alleged role in the recent Jaipur blasts.

The State Government had informed the Centre several times of the need to deport Bangladeshi nationals entering the state. "We wrote to them in June 2007 to say, look we need to do something about this. We got a reply back from them (Centre) saying, well why don't you just collect them and put them into a transit camp somewhere,"Raje said in a television progamme.

On being asked whether she had received any written communcation from the Home Ministry in this regard, she replied "Yes...kindly round them up and put them in a transit camp, which you pay for."

The Home Ministry gave this suggestion, she added.

Her remarks are likely to affect the relations between the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led state government in Rajasthan.

Annoyed at the suggestion, she said that it seems, the Central Government had asked the state to "set up its own Guantanamo Bay (where the US security agencies keep terror suspects)".

"Something like that. But it's much more serious than that," she said.

On being asked under what law the state could detain people in a transit camp, she said, "We have been asking the same question (to the Centre)."

With the name of Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) cropping up in connection with the May 13 serial blasts in Jaipur, the State Government has started identifying Bangladeshis "having criminal background" within the next 30 days.

The BJP has accused the Congress-led UPA Government's "soft approach" for the terror strike in Jaipur, which left 64 people dead.

ANI