Identify people who are helping Rohingyas, says Manipur CM N Biren Singh

File image: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh

Expressing concern over the presence of Rohingyas in Manipur, Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said efforts should be made to identify the people who are facilitating their entry and providing them shelter in the state.

The chief minister was referring to the arrest of six Rohingyas from the Tulihal International Airport in Imphal on August 10. The six passengers had arrived from New Delhi with forged documents.

Addressing people on the occasion of Patriots' Day on August 13, he said, "It indicates that many of them are taking shelter in the state and we have to find out the persons who are behind the illegal entry of Rohingyas from different places."

Urging the locals to trace Rohingyas and the agents who are bringing them to Manipur, the chief minister said, the "already sinking" Manipuri population will disappear in the coming years, if they do not take the initiative.

Police investigation revealed that the six Rohingyas were trained in a Madrasa in Delhi and had come to the state with the help of some agents based in the national capital and Manipur, DIG T Ngasangva had told reporters on August 11.

The Rohingyas had admitted that they were residents of Yangon and Mandalay in Myanmar, the DIG said.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Myanmar's Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017 after a military crackdown, triggering a massive refugee crisis.