Railway alerted RPF over Rohingya exodus to Kerala
The Southern Railway has received intelligence input from the Railway Board. It has acted on that intelligence. Railway alerted RPF units across all divisions to watch out for movement of a huge number of Rohingyas. They might be travelling from northeastern states to Kerala. The RPF units have been asked to hand them over to the local police.
The Chief Security Commissioner of Southern Railways has sent a letter to the divisional security commissioners of many states on Wednesday. These states include Chennai, Madurai, Trivandrum, Palaghat and Tiruchirapalli. An RPF officer reported that the alert warned exclusively about the Rohingya movement from the northeast to Kerala. The letter gave a list of trains originating from states such as West Bengal and Assam. The destinations were spread across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. To handle this large operation, the railway alerted RPF.
The list of trains stated in the letter includes the Santragachi-Chennai Central Antyodaya Express, Howrah-Kanyakumari Express, Howrah Mail, Guwahati-Trivandrum Superfast Express and Shalimar-Trivandrum Express.
These are the trains that are preferred skilled and unskilled labourers of northeastern states to travel to Kerala and Tamil Nadu throughout the year. A senior RPF officer said that the Railway Board indicated a security risk over Rohingya. After this, the alert was issued.
The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority group from Myanmar’s Rakhine province. Thousands of them fled from Myanmar into neighbouring countries. They have taken refuge in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called them “illegal immigrants” and directed the state government to monitor their movements and help enable their deportation to Myanmar. In August, last year, the government wanted to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country.
Following the government’s order, the railway alerted the RPF. They are treating the illegal immigrants as criminals and suspects.
