Assam Probes Reported Religious Conversions, Visa Violation By Foreigners

Assam government has launched an inquiry into recent reported incidents of religious conversions and foreigners conducting religious preachings in the state on tourist visas.

Assam Police said they have started probing whether some foreign nationals, who had arrived in the state on tourist visas, were involved in any kind of religious conversion activities.

Religious conversion is not allowed in India under any visa type, police clarified.

Assam has also written to the centre to blacklist all foreigners who have been violating tourist and visit visa norms and taking part in religious meetings in the state. It has also asked the centre to blacklist all those organisations that have been inviting these foreign nationals.

Special Director General of Police GP Singh said today that police were investigating two cases - one in Dibrugarh and the other in Golaghat - to find out what was the role of certain Indians and what was the actual purpose of the foreigners who visited those places.

"We have evidences of them [foreigners] participating in religious meetings. Was there more to it, including religious conversion? We will investigate all that," he said.

He further said that all district police chiefs have been alerted to keep a very close watch on all religious meetings where foreigners are present.

Last week, three Swedish and seven German nationals were detained by cops in Assam and later sent to Delhi for deportation after they were found to have attended religious preachings, which is a violation of visit and tourist visa norms in India.

Last month, 17 Bangladeshis were arrested for similar visa violations. Now police are probing if these foreigners had conducted any religious conversions in the state.