Bhubaneswar: Jagatsinghpur Police carried out an extensive late-night raid on Tuesday to identify Bangladeshi nationals residing in the district illegally. The operation was conducted in Dariapur slum, located behind Tarikunda High School, as cops picked up 21 people for verification.

The raid was led by Additional SP Satyabrata Das with nearly two platoons of force and several senior officers. Police searched around 20 houses during the operation and detained 15 men and women, along with 6 children, on suspicion. They have been housed at a cyclone shelter set up at Bagalpur in Biridi for further probe.

Similar raid in recent past

Police had earlier conducted similar checks in the Beherampur slum and the locality behind Tarikunda College. During the raid in Beherampur, a large cache of weapons was seized. Investigators had found that a man identified as Sikandar Alam had brought several suspected Bangladeshis to the area and provided them shelter.

More than 30 suspects from the earlier raid were detained for verification. After scrutiny, 20 were confirmed to be Bangladeshi nationals and were subsequently sent back to Bangladesh.

A separate verification drive was also carried out in Paradip on Tuesday, where three individuals were detained on suspicion. Police later found that they were fishermen from West Bengal and released them.