Six more Bangladesh nationals held in Tripura

Five Bangladeshi nationals, who after illegally entering India were working at a construction site in West Tripura, were arrested on Tuesday while neighbouring country currency was also recovered from them, police said.

Police said that an Indian tout Isha Ali, a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal, was also arrested along with the Bangladeshi citizens.

A police official said that after getting information, police of the New Capital Complex police station conducted a raid at Nandannagar on the outskirts of Agartala and arrested the Bangladeshi nationals, aged between 20 to 30 years old.

All the arrested Bangladeshi citizens and the Indian tout were produced in a local court, which sent them in police custody.

Police said that an investigation is underway in the case.

Meanwhile, the Border Security Force (BSF) arrested another Bangladeshi national in West Tripura.

A BSF spokesman said that border guarding troops deployed in the area of Border Out Post Nischintpur apprehended the Bangladesh citizen when he was trying to negotiate border fencing to enter into India illegally.

Over the last three months, around 300 Bangladeshi nationals and 32 Rohingyas were arrested by the BSF, Government Railway Police and Tripura Police from the Agartala railway station and various other places in Tripura after they illegally entered India.

After the troubles and violence began in the neighbouring country in June security along the India-Bangladesh frontiers was further tightened and a close vigil has been maintained.

The BSF spokesman said that during the past two months, the force has foiled several infiltration bids in different bordering areas of the northeastern states and also arrested some Indian touts and human traffickers.

In view of ongoing unrest and political crisis in Bangladesh, the BSF has stepped up its vigilance along the India-Bangladesh border with northeastern states and maintained close coordination with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at various levels, he said.

To heighten the security along the border, the BSF has also introduced a multi-pronged strategy to prevent trans-border crime and illegal infiltration, with state-of-the-art hand-held thermal imagers and drones have been inducted.

BSF Director General Daljit Singh Chawdhary, Additional Director General, BSF, Eastern Command Ravi Gandhi, and Inspector Generals of BSF’s four frontiers in the northeastern region are regularly visiting the border areas and closely reviewing the preparedness of the troopers.

Gandhi is also heading a committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to monitor the current situation on the India-Bangladesh border, which spans 1,880 km with Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).