100 Bangladeshi, Rohingyas held in 5 months from Agartala railway station alone

Around 100 infiltrators including 87 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested during the past five months at the Agartala railway station alone, while hundreds of other intruders from across the border were nabbed in different places of Tripura, officials said here on Friday.

After the unrest began in Bangladesh in July, especially after the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, the infiltration into India's northeastern states increased to a large extent.

A senior official of the Government Railway Police (GRP) said that around 100 Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas were detained at the Agartala railway station between August 1 and December 24.

Besides the intruders, 28 Indian touts were also arrested for facilitating the infiltrators to cross the India-Bangladesh border illegally.

The Bangladeshi and the Rohingyas, after arrest, told the security personnel that they intended to go to Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other places in India in search of jobs.

Over the last five months, around 600 Bangladeshi nationals and over 63 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.

During this year (2024), 55 Rohingyas among 700 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were apprehended in Tripura and various contraband worth around Rs 50 crore seized by BSF alone.

The Rohingyas illegally entered India after fleeing their camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar where more than one million displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar have been living since 2017.

Both the detained Bangladeshi nationals and the Rohingyas told the Indian security officials that they illegally entered India in search of jobs and shelter.

A BSF spokesman said that after the Bangladesh unrest began in June-July, the border guarding force has intensified its domination and operations along the 856 km India-Bangladesh border in Tripura to prevent infiltration, exfiltration, and trans-border crimes including smuggling of contrabands.

The BSF, on a number of occasions, foiled several infiltration attempts by hundreds of Bangladeshi nationals comprising both Hindus and Muslims.