The Jammu & Kashmir administration has sent around 150 people, described as “illegal immigrants”, among 500 people detained from different parts of the Union Territory, to Bagdogra airport for deportation. The action comes two months after a high-level committee on Demographic Changes visited Jammu & Kashmir.

Police sources said a batch of people described as “illegal immigrants” was sent in an Indian Air Force plane to Bagdogra airport in West Bengal. Sources said the immigrants would be handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) and deported to Bangladesh on October 7.

Police sources said the J&K Police conducted a special exercise over the last few days to identify “illegal immigrants” in Jammu & Kashmir. They said around 500 people — mostly from Bangladesh — were detained by the police and shifted to a facility on the outskirts of Srinagar city.

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“Most of these people were settled in different parts of Kashmir valley for many years now,” said a police officer. “They were mostly doing menial jobs like rag picking, etc”.

Sources said some of those detained are Rohingya from Myanmar. Police said that while the first batch was sent to West Bengal for onward deportation, the other detainees would also be sent in batches in the coming days for deportation.

The action comes two months after a high-level committee on demographic changes visited Jammu and Kashmir for its first field visit. The Union Home Ministry set up the committee in May this year.

During its visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the committee was informed that there are 7,656 Rohingya and 504 Bangladeshi nationals in Jammu and Kashmir — 6,737 “Rohingya” and 46 “Bangladeshi immigrants” in Jammu, and 919 “Rohingya” and 458 “Bangladeshi nationals” in the Valley. The committee was also informed that 117 cases were registered against them — 101 in Jammu and 16 in Kashmir.