Bengali Speakers: Police told to be vigilant after Bengali speakers’ harassment complaints | Bhubaneswar News
Bhubaneswar: The state govt has asked the police to remain vigilant following reports of Bengali-speaking people allegedly targeted on suspicion of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Sources said incidents of Bengali-speaking people being harassed were reported from Jajpur, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur and Sambalpur districts. In most cases local people confronted roadside vendors and workers speaking Bengali and asked them to show documents to rule out that they are not illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
In Sambalpur, a group of local people forced more than 30 Bengali speaking workers to go to Ainthapali police station in Sambalpur city on suspicion of them being settlers from Bangladesh.They were let off after police verified their documents and found them to be all from India.
“There were no major incidents of violence and police have acted promptly in isolated cases of Bengali-speaking people being targeted. We are alert to prevent any untoward incident. Action will be taken against the guilty as per law,” DGP Arun Sarangi said.
On Sunday, the issue was taken up by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a phone conversation with his Odisha counterpart Mohan Majhi. Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said the govt will soon begin the process of verifying identities of Bangladeshi citizens illegally entering Odisha.
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