Police patrolling along Assam-Arunachal boundary intensified

[Prafulla Kaman]
RUKSIN, Apr 16: The state police have stepped up vigil along the interstate boundary with Assam, following a report that ‘homeless Muslims’ are fleeing from Assam to the neighbouring states.
The police are guarding every vulnerable location along the porous boundary, while the local administration has alerted the residents of the boundary areas to report the entry of any suspicious-looking or unidentified persons into their areas.
When contacted, the East Siang superintendent of police refused to comment on the matter, but said that the interstate boundary with Assam has already been sealed to prevent any unauthorized entry.
Reliable sources informed that the Nagaland police sent WT messages to the police stations of Arunachal bordering Assam to intensify vigil along the interstate boundary. Reportedly, homeless Muslims of Assam are fleeing towards the bordering states of Arunachal, Meghalaya and Nagaland on foot due to the coronavirus outbreak. Some of them are said to be linked with the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month.
Assam police sources said that despite a massive drive to trace such persons, many are reportedly still hiding. The police have stepped up scrutiny of trucks carrying food and other essential commodities across the interstate boundaries.
The police in Assam have confirmed that a group of Muslim people from Assam, who attended the Nizamuddin congregation in Delhi, returned to the state last month. Since then, about 31 Covid-19 positive cases in that state have been linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
The police in Assam recently arrested five persons who had managed to travel from outside the state amid the lockdown on 24 March and hide themselves in a house in Guwahati.