Ahmedabad: City police on Thursday detained 17 Bangladeshi women, including a seven-year-old girl, for allegedly residing in India without valid documents. They were taken to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) in Sardarnagar for questioning by multiple agencies.

According to the police, the operation was led by Inspector K. N. Bhukan of Sola police station. During a combing operation in the Gota and Chandlodiya areas, a total of 17 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh—who had arrived in Gujarat between 10 days and four years ago—were detained.

The police have also booked some landlords for violating notification norms by failing to report details of their tenants to the authorities.

All the detainees are women aged between 21 and 49 years, along with one girl aged seven. As per Sola police, these women had come to India alone — some have families still in Bangladesh, while others have been deserted by their husbands.

The detainees include Jolly Begum, Rehana Begum, Halima Begum, Moina Khatun, Sati, Sumaiya Akhtar, Sonay Bibi, Parveen Akhtar, Sultana, Suma Akhtar, Ayesha Khatun, Shanta Khatun alias Meghla, Bilkish, Salma Khatun, Ozufa, and Jivannahar, among others.

Police are further probing whether local agents were involved in facilitating their entry into Gujarat. Preliminary findings suggest that most of those responsible for trafficking them are based in Bangladesh. After interrogation at the JIC, the deportation process for the women to Bangladesh will be initiated. DeshGujarat