Lucknow: A months long police verification drive across Lucknow has not found any Bangladeshi national living illegally in the city so far, despite intensive checks in all five zones of the state capital. Senior police officials said field verification and document scrutiny did not reveal any person who had entered the city illegally from Bangladesh. The operation is continuing.
According to the Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, the special drive was launched on government instructions. Police teams conducted checks in several localities and raided slum clusters, asking residents to produce identity documents. During verification, most people living in these settlements were found to be migrants from Assam. All produced valid documents, which were verified and found to be genuine. No suspicious or illegal Bangladeshi national has been detected so far. The officer said legal action would be taken if any illegal resident is found during the ongoing drive.
To trace any illegal Bangladeshi nationals, the police have activated their informer network and are also taking assistance from intelligence agencies. Police sources said many people from Assam have settled in Lucknow over the years and several have obtained documents using local addresses. Many of them are also registered as voters in local body elections.
The findings of the police drive come against the backdrop of claims made in January 2025 by Lucknow Mayor Sushma Kharkwal, who had alleged that around two lakh suspicious residents, including Bangladeshi and Rohingya nationals, were living in the city. She had said she personally visited Gomti Nagar to verify documents of residents.
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Asked about the outcome of the police exercise, Kharkwal said she was not aware of the details of the verification drive. She said the police should share their report and specify the areas where checks were conducted, after which she would comment on the issue.
Police officials, however, pointed to a recent case in Thakurganj where a woman was arrested on the basis of inputs from the Anti Terrorist Squad. The woman was found with forged Aadhaar cards. During questioning, the accused, identified as Nargis, was found to have obtained Aadhaar cards under different names. Police said she had illegally entered India from Bangladesh and had contracted two marriages. One of her associates was also arrested for allegedly helping her procure forged documents.
