Six Bangladesh nationals, two Indian touts held in Tripura

Agartala, July 12 (IANS) Six Bangladeshi citizens and two Indian touts were arrested in Tripura for crossing over the international border illegally without valid documents, officials said on Saturday.

A police official said that the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, during a routine check at an inter-state bus terminal in North Tripura district headquarters, Dharmanagar, on Friday night, detained four Bangladeshi nationals and two Indian citizens who guided them to enter India illegally.

In another incident, two more Bangladeshi nationals were arrested while they were on their way from the bordering Sidhai areas in West Tripura to Khowai district in a vehicle. All eight persons, including six Bangladeshi citizens, were handed over to the police authority by the BSF for taking further necessary legal action.

In another operation, the BSF troops foiled various smuggling attempts along the India-Bangladesh border and seized dry ganja, Phensedyl and other contrabands valued at Rs 15.52 lakh. The items were seized while being smuggled to Bangladesh through the West Tripura district.

Meanwhile, the security forces of Tripura and other northeastern states, following the instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), have intensified their efforts to detect Bangladeshi, Rohingyas and foreign nationals who are hiding in Indian territories.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha earlier this week said that infiltrators from Bangladesh also realised that this bordering state (Tripura) is not a safe zone for them. “After the trouble began in Bangladesh and following the fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August last year, security forces maintained a close vigil along the border to foil any kind of infiltration bid,” Saha, who also holds the home portfolio, had told the media.

He said it is also not possible to enter Tripura and live here using fake Aadhaar cards. The Chief Minister recently held meetings with the senior security officials of different agencies, including BSF, and requested the officials in the state to maintain close coordination among them to deal with the border-related issues and other related developments in view of the tension between India and Pakistan.

The Chief Minister had further stated that if such infiltrators from across the border manage to enter Indian (Tripura) territory, they would be pushed back as per legal provisions.

BSF officials said that the para-military troops have enhanced vigil and intensified their domination along the International Border since the violence in Bangladesh began in June-July last year, especially after the fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5 last year.

Tripura, which has an 856 km border with Bangladesh, is surrounded on three sides by the neighbouring country, making the northeastern state very vulnerable and sensitive to cross-border migration issues. Except for some patches, most of the frontier had been fenced to prevent smuggling, trans-border crimes, cross-border illegal movements by infiltrators and inimical elements.

--IANS

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