Ahmedabad, June 3 (IANS) The Ahmedabad Crime Branch has detained 131 individuals identified as Bangladeshi nationals during a large-scale verification drive carried out across multiple parts of the city, while interrogation is continuing for another 160 persons, police officials said on Wednesday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sharad Singhal told IANS that the operation was not confined to any single locality but was conducted across several densely populated residential areas.

“131 confirmed out of 291,” he said, adding that the remaining individuals were undergoing documentation checks and identity verification.

He confirmed that the drive covered Narol, Vatva, Naroda, Danilimda, Sola, Sarkhej, and other areas.

According to police, the action is part of ongoing verification exercises targeting suspected illegal immigrants residing in Ahmedabad.

Officials said those detained have been brought to the Crime Branch for questioning, with inter-agency coordination underway to verify documents and immigration status.

This latest operation comes amid a series of similar enforcement drives in Gujarat in recent years.

In April last year, Gujarat Police detained over 1,000 suspected illegal Bangladeshi nationals across Ahmedabad and Surat in a coordinated pre-dawn crackdown, with senior officers confirming that large-scale interrogations were conducted following intelligence inputs on illegal residency clusters.

In another major operation in 2024, Ahmedabad Crime Branch detained 48 Bangladeshi nationals during raids linked to alleged forgery and human trafficking networks.

Officials stated that fake identity documents, including Aadhaar and PAN cards, were being examined as part of the probe.

Earlier enforcement actions have also resulted in deportations after prolonged legal processes.

In one such case, 16 Bangladeshi nationals were deported from Ahmedabad after being detained in previous raids, with remaining detainees kept under verification and legal scrutiny before repatriation procedures were completed.

Officials said the current operation is a continuation of periodic verification drives aimed at identifying undocumented foreign nationals and examining suspected cases of forged identity usage.

–IANS

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