Ahmedabad Police said they had detained 61 people suspected of being undocumented immigrants during a city-wide crackdown ahead of Diwali. Women and children were also among those detained.
The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) said on Monday that most of the detainees were Bangladeshi nationals. The operation began on Sunday night, with raids conducted across several parts of the city.
“In a major proactive step to bolster public safety and city security ahead of the upcoming Diwali festivities, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch launched a comprehensive, city-wide crackdown targeting illegal foreign nationals residing unlawfully in the metropolis,” the Crime Branch said in a statement.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ajit Rajian told The Indian Express that those detained had been picked up from Danilimda, Pirana, Jamalpur, Naroda and Nikol.
Police said the detainees were taken to the Crime Branch headquarters and would later be moved to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC), where around 40 other people are already lodged. Officials said the process to deport them to their respective countries was underway.
The police have not publicly provided details of the individual cases or evidence establishing the nationality of those detained.
Previous Crackdowns in Gujarat
The Gujarat Police routinely conduct raids and crackdowns during the Navratri and Diwali period. However, officials said the latest operation was limited to Ahmedabad city.
In June, the state police launched Operation Delta Hunt, described as a drive against elements posing a threat to national security. On June 5, police identified and detained 568 people suspected of being undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants. The group included 282 women, 114 children and 172 men.
Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi had said the state government followed a zero-tolerance policy on national security and that those suspected of being undocumented immigrants were being identified and processed for deportation.
Last year, between May and June 2025, 465 people suspected of being Bangladeshi immigrants were detained in Ahmedabad during a demolition drive targeting encroachments around Chandola Lake.
Concerns Over Detentions and Deportations
The latest crackdown comes amid a wider campaign by police in several states to identify and detain people suspected of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.
Since the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Bengali-speaking people, many of them Muslims, have been detained in different parts of the country and asked to establish their Indian citizenship.
There have also been cases in which people were allegedly pushed across the border into Bangladesh despite being Indian citizens. Some later returned to India after authorities verified their citizenship.
Reports have raised concerns that police operations in several states bypassed procedures prescribed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for deporting undocumented migrants.
In May 2025, the ministry directed states and Union Territories to verify the credentials of people suspected of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar within 30 days.
