Amid strict vigil, 16 Bangladeshis held at Agartala railway station

Amidst a high-level vigil along the India-Bangladesh border, infiltration from the violence-hit country into Tripura remained unabated as 16 more Bangladeshi nationals including three women were arrested in the state for illegal entry into India.

An official said that the 16 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel from Agartala railway station on Tuesday night before boarding a train.

The Agartala railway station, on the outskirts of the capital city, is around 6 km from the Bangladesh border.

The official said that the infiltrators told the interrogators that they fled from their trouble-torn country to protect their lives and in search of jobs.

Thirteen of the 16 Bangladeshis, aged between 20-40 years, are residents of Rajshahi division's Chapainawabganj district while the remaining three are residents of Gazipur district under Dhaka division.

Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions have no border with Tripura but in the recent past, many nationals from there have entered Tripura, a senior official said.

Tripura shares an 856 km border with Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Sylhet divisions.

Since trouble started in Bangladesh in June, infiltration into India (Tripura) increased to a large extent.

Over the last three months, around 250 Bangladeshi nationals and 32 Rohingyas were arrested by the GRP, Border Security Force (BSF), and Tripura Police from Agartala railway station and various other places in Tripura for illegally entering India.

A BSF spokesman said that the border guarding troops during the past few weeks foiled several infiltration bids in different bordering areas and also arrested some Indian touts and human traffickers.

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.

Saying that the BSF has introduced a multi-pronged strategy to prevent trans-border crime and illegal infiltration, the spokesman stated that surveillance has been stepped up and state of the art Hand Held Thermal Imagers and Drones have been inducted.

BSF’s Tripura frontiers Inspector General Patel Piyush Purusottam Das, a senior IPS officer, along with other senior officials are continuously visiting the bordering areas to closely monitor the situation.

Das said that he has directed all commanders, posted along the borders, to step up coordination with all law enforcement and sister agencies for sharing of intelligence inputs and carrying out joint operations, both on the border and hinterland, against illegal infiltrators and trans-border smugglers.

The BSF in coordination with the BGB is also conducting joint patrolling along the India-Bangladesh borders to prevent infiltration and numerous border crimes, the official said.