Dhaka (The Daily Star/ANN) - Three Rohingyas were arrested yesterday when trying to go abroad with fake papers at Sylhet's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
The arrestees are Ziaur Rahman, 23, Mohammad Aiyub, 29, and Mohammad Ali, 32.
Armed Police Battalion (APBn) arrested the Rohingyas around 10:00am, when their passports were found to be fake during verification, according to APBn officials.
"During interrogation, they admitted having paid 150,000 taka (US$1,880) each to a broker named Jasim to manage the passports and visas,"said an APBn official.
He added that they pretended to be Zamir Hossain, Rakibul Islam and Abdul Jalil respectively to get the Bangladeshi passports and visas.
The three lived in a Rohingya camp at Cox's Bazar.
They were set to go to Saudi Arabia on a flight of the Qatar Airways, the official said.
The APBn also nabbed two Bangladeshis around 11:30am yesterday. The two were to take a flight of Jet Airways to South Africa.
In recent times, over 300 Rohingya Muslims have been arrested in Bangladesh while they were trying to go abroad with fake papers.
The Saudi Arabian authorities last year arrested around 700 Rohingyas, who had made their way into the country with Bangladeshi documents. The Saudis are now pressing Bangladesh to take them back, sources said.
Once abroad, many Rohingyas commit different crimes, tarnishing the image of Bangladesh, said immigration and foreign ministry officials.
*US$1=79.80 taka
