Kolkata, September 2: They come in as students from Bangladesh to a convenient double-life in India. With “student” stamped on their papers, they don’t have to worry about the law enforcement agencies for the duration of their visa. And then, they seem to carry on as illegals at a variety of “Islamic” study centres, from Lucknow to Hyderabad.

There is growing evidence of how terror networks along the Bangladesh-West Bengal border are pushing in cadres in the guise of students. Among all the checkposts, Haridaspur in Bongaon, about 100 km form Kolkata, is reportedly the most “active” in terms of trans-border smuggling and human trafficking.

Osman Goni is an example of how easy it can be. He entered India with a valid Bangladeshi passport and an endorsed student visa from Indian authorities for a period of 30 days — Oct 17-Nov 16, 2006. His chance arrest at Haridaspur check post on August 22, 2007 revealed that he had been in India for well over a year.

Though his detention was not immediately linked to any terrorist activities, his interrogation and search brought out damaging evidence, documents with The Indian Express show. Goni had procured a student identity card for Jamia Anwar-ul-Huda in Hyderabad in India. The identity card gives details of the location of the institution where Osman was supposed to be studying — Naddi Mooseguda, near Kishan Bagh, Bahadurpur, Hyderabad- 64 (Andhra Pradesh), India.

Closer scrutiny lays bare the discrepancies in his record and the security threat that students like Osman pose. His date of birth in the passport is December 8, 1985. It becomes July 8, 1984 in his student identity card from the Hyderabad-based institute.

Osman’s passport address of Panch Ruhi, Monuharganj, Comilla in Bangladesh becomes Panch Ruhi village of Monuharpurganj in West Tripura, India. Pin — 799261. His passport name of Osman Goni becomes Mohd. Osman Ghani in the student card — a fake address and a fake identity during his stay in India.

The card was to expire on August 30, 2007 but he was nabbed a week before that and remains in custody. The probe agencies are trying to find out where all did he go during his stay in India.

Shohael Rumy was another recent arrest near the Haridaspur checkpost. He too was trying to slip back into Bangladesh after spending more than a year beyond the validity of his student visa to India. It appears from the documents the Express has that Shohael first came to India from Bangladesh on a tourist visa in 2002. He was once again granted a student visa for one year from November 10, 2004 to November 9, 2005.

With him were three sets of student identity cards — one for a Hyderabad institute and the other two for Lucknow’s. Shohael had two addresses in Bangladesh — one of Daulatpur in Noakhali and the other of Dhanmondi in Dhaka. His photo on the passport and those on the student cards vary widely. In the passport photo, Shohael is clean-shaven but in the cards, he sports a long beard and a topi. One of the cards was for Ilmahad-ul-Aali-Al-Islami, Hyderabad. The card describes it is a centre for “research and specialisation in Islamic sciences”.

And like Osman, Shohael Rumy of Noakhali becomes Suhail Rummi of 18, Central Road, Hatirpul, Agartala, Tripura.

“We arrested and handed over these people to the police. We know of networks that take care of everything for them — transit, transport and other requirements,” said Somesh Goyel, an IG for BSF, in Kolkata. “Earlier, we used to regard most of them as poor Bangladeshi students, but now our men have been told the students could be the ones we are looking for.”

The change seems to have yielded results. In 2007 alone, the border guards claim to have intercepted as many as 11 hardcore militants belonging to outfits like Loshkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujhadeen, and Jamaat-ul-Mujhadeen and Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh. Only three militants were arrested in the previous two years. All these arrests were made at the Haridaspur border point.