KOLKATA: Two Rohingya women, who had sneaked into Bengal six months ago, were arrested at

on Sunday evening while trying to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur using passports acquired by fraudulent means.

Rafika Khatoon, 22, was born in Maungdaw town of Myanmar’s restive Rakhine province, which has witnessed exodus of an estimated seven lakh Rohingya following ethnic cleansing. Khatoon had reached Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in 2017 and had found shelter in a refugee camp in Tangail district. She entered India last year and got in touch with a middleman who helped her procure a fake passport as a resident of Kulti, Burdwan.

Khatoon’s companion, Noor Kaida, 20, had fled Myanmar as a child.

Handler also held at Kolkata airport

Kaida, too, had reached a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar and then entered India six months ago. The duo told cops that they stayed in Burdwan. “It was quite difficult to spot them as Rohingya from their outfits. They had also learnt to speak a bit of Hindi,” said an official with Bidhannagar Police.

On Sunday, the two women tried to board a Kuala Lumpur-bound flight. They were accompanied by Kallol Mitra, a resident of Birbhum.

The trio was questioned after immigration officers spotted some discrepancies in their passports. Mitra revealed that he was a handler and was supposed to take the women to their uncle in Malaysia.