Infiltration of Rohingya refugees will be checked and smuggling godfathers will be arrested to free the country from smuggling, the home minister has said. "Rohingyas are bringing different kinds of smuggled goods from Myanmar," Sahara Khatun said after the meeting of the National Smuggling Prevention Committee at the home ministry on Sunday. "We have discussed how their infiltration and the smuggling can be checked in today's meeting," she said.

Legal steps will be taken against any local resident sheltering or assisting a Rohingya, said home secretary Abdus Sobhan Shikdar. The Chittagong divisional commissioner has been instructed to take steps, he said. "Only imprisoning the carriers will not do. We will have to reach the roots to find out the godfathers and bring them under law to stop smuggling totally," said Khatun. Some things are smuggled out, and fertiliser and narcotics are smuggled in, she said.

The Indian foreign minister said on Saturday that the separatist Naxalites of his country are collecting arms from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. Asked whether there is any link between the Rohingyas and arms smuggling in the light of the Indian minister's comment she said, "We will investigate the matter."

-bdnews