The police arrested four Myanmar citizens from Jalalabad town of Thanabhawan area in Shamli district on Sunday for staying illegally. A madarsa principal is also arrested. Two others, who helped these four in their stay here, have been named in the FIR.

SHO of Thanabhawan police station Sandeep Baliyan told that Mohd Rizwan Khan and Mohd Furkan Hussain were arrested from outside a madarsa in Jalalabad while Ali and Abdul Majeed were arrested from Khushnuma colony which is close to the madarsa.

The SHO said that the Police have recovered 3 passports, 3 letters of UN Refugee, foreign currency, 2 Aadhar cards, 2 bank passbooks and 1 ATM card from the possession of the arrested Myanmar nationals.

Besides, Wasif Ameen, the principal of Madarsa Darul Uloom has also been arrested. One of the arrested Myanmar national, Abdul Majeed, had taught at the madarsa for some time.

SHO Baliyan said that he got inputs regarding the illegal stay of some foreign nationals through local informers. He came to know that these foreign nationals were staying there with fake names. Hence, he started an investigation and then finding the charges to be true, arrested them. “They are now being sent to the jail,” he informed.

A case has been registered against seven persons including Kari Ashraf (Principal of Madarsa Jamia Asharfia) and Mohtameem Hafiulla (Principal of Madarsa Muftia)) besides the five arrested persons under sections 14 (Foreign act), 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC which are mainly for cheating.

Rizwan, Furkan and Nauman are real brothers who came on the Myanmar passport and Visa. They told the police that they had come to India for religious education.  Their Visa had expired long back and changing their names, they had applied for asylum to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and managed to get their certificate also. Rizwan and Furkan were studying in Madarsa Muftia Uloom of Jalalabad and claimed to have informed the Madarsa head about their Myanmar citizenship.

On the contrary, Abdul Mazid, in his statement to the police, said that he had entered India via Nakura of Bangla Desh with his father and brother crossing the Balonia border in 2001 and reached Kolkata. In 2004 he came to UP and since then had lived in Shamli, Ujjain (MP), and Karnataka. From June 2016 to May 2019, he taught in Madarsa Darul Uloom of Jalalabad town which is run by Wasif Ameen. He then joined Madarsa Jamia Asharfia of Thanabhawan as a teacher.

Mazeed told that he had informed the Madarsa heads that he was from Myanmar. Meanwhile, he had bought a house for Rs 5.60 lakh in Jalalabad and managed to get a PAN card and Aadhar card in Shamli. He also opened accounts in State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank in Jalalabad.

Teams of police, local intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Squad are interrogating the arrested persons to know their motive behind staying illegally, their network and all those who were patronising them.