Panel to identify illegal foreign settlers in J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has set up a committee to identify foreign nationals overstaying or illegally staying in the Union Territory since the beginning of 2011.

The home department said in an order that the six-member panel, headed by its financial commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary, will prepare a monthly report and submit it to the Union home ministry by the seventh day of every month.

The panel includes Punjab's Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, senior superintendents of police (SSPs), the J&K Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Special Branch) of both Jammu and Srinagar, all district SSPs and SPs, and state coordinator, Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking, National Informatics Centre.


Hundreds of Rohingyas, Muslim minority immigrants from Myanmar, are staying in Jammu and claim to have an identity card from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Delhi. In 2021, the J&K Police detained around 270 Rohingyas in Jammu and lodged them in a holding centre in Hiranagar.