Jaipur blast may echo in Andaman alert Bangladeshi influx increases

Port Blair, May 29 (UNI) The intelligence wing of the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands informed that it had become difficult to establish the identities of immigrant labourers, amid allegations of an influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

After the recent serial blasts in Jaipur, police had confirmed that it was the handiwork of Bangladeshi terrorist outfits, a statement, which is giving the security forces in Andaman sleepless nights.

After the tsunami, thousands of labourers from West Bengal had been brought to these Islands by contractors to carry out assive rehabilitation work but last years, nearly 200 of these labourers were identified as Bangladeshis, who had illegally sneaked into the country.

''We are trying to identify individually each labourer, who comes to these islands and a verification of identity is being done at national level,'' Superintendent of Police of Andaman V Ranganathan told UNI today.

The Criminal Investigating Department (CID) is helping the police department in this regard and also maintaining data about every private labourers coming to these islands.

While prominent islanders fear that Bangladeshis, who are coming to these islands as labourers and are being sent in different strategically important islands for tsunami rehabilitation work may file with sensitive information from these islands, police dismissed any such possibility.

''Till now, we have not received any such report,'' the SP said.

''We are now demanding proper identification of all labourers well before their arrival so that any future disaster could be averted,'' an islander said.

''They come here and it is only after a few months, that their identity verification clearance comes from their native country,'' he explained and added, ''A lot can happen in these islands in the meantime.'' UNI SKR LL RR US1646