The Centre may “strike” at textile units across the country for illegally bringing in workers from Bangladesh, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday (January 1, 2025).
He said the police in Assam and Tripura have been apprehending 20 to 30 Bangladeshi “infiltrators every day and research” revealed that they were mostly textile workers rendered jobless after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government hit the textile industry in Bangladesh hard.
“We found out that the textile industry in Bangladesh virtually collapsed after the unrest there (since August 2024). Many textile factory owners in our country are incentivising these workers for cheap labour, making them enter India illegally,” Mr. Sarma told journalists during his customary January 1 interaction.
“Two days ago, I discussed the issue with my counterparts in the Northeastern States and also the government of West Bengal. We raised the issue in the last North Eastern Council meeting (Agartala) and with (Union) Home Minister Amit Shah,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the government found the issue “very alarming” as “so many infiltrators” were never detected earlier.
“I have taken up the matter. The Centre is also very serious. We have to strike at those industrial houses incentivising the Bangladeshi textile workers in the name of cheap labour,” he added.
Mr. Sarma said more than 1,000 “infiltrators” were pushed back during the past five months.
He also said the Bangladeshi nationals caught entering India were from the “majority community” in Bangladesh. “The Hindu people are not coming from Bangladesh even after tremendous atrocities,” he said.
The Chief Minister also said the State police has been coordinating with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to crack down on a different set of Bangladeshi nationals pushing a “jihadist” agenda in India.
“We have busted a major terror module and arrested 23 people from Assam, Kerala, and West Bengal,” he said.
