Convicted of illegal stay in India, Myanmar woman manages to get domicile papers

All seven of them have also been able to procure Aadhaar cards, the SSP told The Indian Express on Thursday.

Poswal said an FIR was registered at Dachhan police station in Kishtwar, and that a police team has been dispatched to seize all the documents that were used by the woman to procure the “fake” domicile certificate.

Police will investigate how the Myanmar national, identified as Anwara Begum, got the certificate, and who facilitated its issuance to her. The role of officials concerned are being investigated, and no arrests have been made so far, police said.

All the seven women have been living in Dachhan for many years, are married to local residents, and have children, the SSP said. They had been apprehended by police between 2012 and 2014 under provisions of the Foreigners Act. A local court had convicted and fined them, Poswal added.

Anwara Begum is the wife of Faiz Ahmed, a Dachhan resident who works as a labourer. They have three minor children.

The settlement of Myanmar nationals – mostly Rohingyas fleeing violence – in J&K has been consistently opposed by parties such as the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Panthers Party.

In 2017, the then chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, said there were 5,743 Rohangiyas in J&K. She also said that there were no reported incidents of radicalisation in the community.

However, 2017 also witnessed a campaign against Rohingyas living in J&K, with the BJP, Shiv Sena, the Panthers Party and even the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry demanding their immediate deportation.

In 2021, the J&K government converted its Hiranagar sub-jail in Kathua district into a holding centre for Myanmar nationals illegally staying in the Jammu division and detained over 200 of them there. They were detained there as part of the Central government’s plan to deport them. However, this could not materialise following the Supreme Court’s stay against their deportation.