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Five foreign nationals were apprehended in a joint operation by the police and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in the Ghodasahan area of East Champaran district in Bihar. They are currently being questioned. The apprehended foreign nationals had entered Bihar via Nepal.
It is reported that late on Saturday night, the SSB received information that some suspected foreigners were trying to go to Patna and had left a village in the area.
The SSB officials immediately informed the police. A joint team of the SSB and Bihar Police reached the Ghodasahan bus stand and launched a search, an official said. The police then detained four occupants of a passenger bus. One more person was later caught.
Four of the foreigners arrested are Sudanese, and one is a Bolivian national. Notes written in Urdu, along with some books and documents, have been recovered from them.
The Motihari Police have also informed their top officials at the headquarters. The police said that they were interrogating all five.
All those arrested are said to be between 30 and 40 years of age. The police are examining the documents found in their possession.
The arrested have been identified as Abdul Fitah (44) from Sudan; Rama Siddiqui (38); Ali Abdul Ghaffar (27); Ahmed Dafaala (37), all from Sudan; and Miguel Solano Chavez, a resident of Bolivia, East Champaran Superintendent of Police Swaran Prabhat told IANS.
He said that during interrogation, the Sudanese citizens admitted to studying in Hyderabad. However, they were not able to provide any clear information about coming to Bihar via Nepal.
The Intelligence Bureau has also been informed about the arrests, police officials said.
Recently, the SSB apprehended five prisoners who had escaped from a jail in Nepal and were attempting to cross into India. The prisoners were caught along the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district while attempting to infiltrate into Indian territory.
India and Nepal share an open, 1,751-km-long border across five Indian states — Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim.