10 Bangladeshi Hindus Detained in Tripura For Illegally Entering India

Agartala:

Agartala Tripura Police on Saturday detained 10 Bangladeshi nationals, belonging to the Hindu community, for illegally entering India after fleeing their village due to unrest and tensions, an official said.

A police officer said that the 10 Bangladeshi nationals – including two women, three teenagers and an elderly person – were detained from the Ambassa railway station in Tripura while they were trying to board train bound for Silchar in Assam. 

“We will initiate legal proceedings against the Bangladeshi nationals as per law,” the official said.

Sankar Chandra Sarkar, one of the persons detained, said they fled from their village, Dhanpur in Kishoreganj district, after facing continuous threats and intimidation.

“After trekking through forested hills, we entered India on Saturday through Kamalpur (in Tripura’s Dhalai district). We were trying to go to Silchar in Assam to stay in a rented house.

“We will never return to Bangladesh under any circumstances. The situation in Bangladesh is very grim. Attacks on the lives and properties of Hindus have become an everyday affair,” Mr Sarkar, who worked as a driver, said.

Talking to the media, the Bangladeshi nationals said they sold some of their properties before fleeing to India but had to abandon many of their properties and household goods and assets.

Mr Sarkar also claimed that thousands of Hindu families wanted to come to India, but were unable to do so for various reasons.

“During the Awami League government headed by then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we were happy and there was no enmity between the Hindus and Muslims in our areas. But after the caretaker government headed by Muhammad Yunus assumed office, we were continuously harassed and threatened,” he said.

Over the last four months, over 550 Bangladeshi nationals and over 63 Rohingyas have been detained by the Government Railway Police, Border Security Force (BSF), and Tripura Police from the Agartala railway station and various other places in Tripura after they illegally entered India.

After the Bangladesh unrest began in June-July, the BSF enhanced surveillance along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border with the neighbouring country to prevent transborder crime and infiltration, officials from the force said.

Five Indian states – West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam ( 263 km) share a border with Bangladesh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)