Seven more Bangladeshi nationals held in Tripura for illegally entering India

way2barak, Aug 2 : Infiltration from Bangladesh into Tripura remained unabated with seven more Bangladesh nationals arrested in the state on Friday for their illegal entry into India, an official said on Friday.

A police officer said that during a routine check-up, the police arrested the seven Bangladesh citizens, all third-genders, at Panisagar in northern Tripura when they were travelling in a Guwahati bound bus.

“The detainees confessed that they were trying to go to Mumbai via Guwahati. They are keen to board a Mumbai-bound train in Assam. They are giving contradictory statements about their plan to go to Mumbai,” a police officer told the media.

He said that some fake Aadhaar cards were found in their custody.

A day earlier, eight Bangladeshi nationals, including two women and two Indian touts were arrested by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel at the Agartala railway station before they could board the train to move to some other states in India.

Over the last two-and-a-half months, more than 170 Bangladeshi nationals and 32 Rohingyas were arrested by the GRP, Border Security Force (BSF), and Tripura Police from the Agartala railway station and various other places in Tripura after they illegally entered India.

Meanwhile, a BSF spokesperson said that the border guarding troops on Friday foiled an infiltration bid in northern Tripura’s Kailashahar area.

He said that a BSF ambush party, which was ahead of the border fence in the area of Tillabazar Border Out Post, observed some suspicious movement of 15-20 Bangladeshi nationals moving towards the border fence from the Bangladesh side with an intention to cross over and enter India.

“When the BSF ambush party challenged the group of infiltrators to stop, they did not pay heed and further tried to forcibly cross the Border Fence. One stun grenade was fired by the BSF party to deter the infiltration bid. But some of the infiltrators, who were equipped with sharp-edged weapons, tried to attack the BSF party.

“As a part of the graded response and non-lethal strategy, one round of pump action gun was then fired. When the non-lethal approach failed to make any difference, one round of 5.56 INSAS was fired towards the Bangladeshi nationals, then they managed to flee towards their homes (on the Bangladesh side),” the spokesman said.

He said that in view of ongoing unrest in Bangladesh, the BSF has stepped up its vigilance along the 856-km border with Tripura and maintained close coordination with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at various levels.