Over 400 suspected illegal immigrants detained in pre-dawn crackdown in Ahmedabad
Updated: Apr 26th, 2025
In a large-scale pre-dawn operation, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, in coordination with teams from the Special Operations Group (SOG), Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Zone-6 police and police headquarters, launched a targeted combing operation across the city to identify and detain foreign nationals residing illegally.
The operation commenced at 3 am on Saturday and led to the detention of over 400 suspected illegal immigrants from various localities of Ahmedabad. As per officials, the crackdown was part of an intensified campaign to address unauthorised migration and enhance internal security.
The detained individuals have been temporarily held at the Kankaria Football Ground, where further verification of their identity, nationality, and legal status is underway.
A senior police official stated that this joint operation was undertaken following intelligence inputs regarding the presence of undocumented foreign nationals in the city.
Ahmedabad Crime Branch Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Sharad Singhal told the news agency that the operation was based on specific Intelligence inputs from the Minister of State for Home Affairs and the Director General of Police (DGP) regarding illegal immigrants residing near Chandola in Ahmedabad.
"As many as 457 infiltrators have been arrested, interrogation of all is going on, all will be deported," JCP Singhal confirmed.
He further stated that two FIRs had already been registered by the Crime Branch since April 2024, through which 127 Bangladeshi nationals had been arrested, and 77 of them had been deported, after which the police received inputs regarding more illegal immigrants living in the area.
"Earlier, 127 Bangladeshi infiltrators were arrested by filing two FIRs, 70 have been deported, and the rest of the proceedings are underway," he added.
The authorities revealed that all of those detained were found possessing fake Indian citizenship documents.
"All of them have fake documents of Indian citizenship, on what basis and with whose help the documents were made we will find out. They will be deported after investigation," JCP Singhal said.
He further added that the process of deportation would begin after the completion of the interrogation and legal formalities.
Surat crackdown
Meanwhile, in a parallel operation in Surat, city police carried out a widespread search across six different police station areas -- Udhana, Katargam, Mahidharpura, Pandesara, Salabatpur, and Limbayat -- where they detained over 100 Bangladeshi citizens.
These individuals were reportedly living in the city for years using fake documents and were engaged in various occupations.
The Surat police's operation began late on Friday night and is ongoing. Multiple police teams are currently interrogating those detained to ascertain how they acquired forged documents and how long they have been residing in the city undetected.
(With inputs from syndicated feed)
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