AGARTALA: In coordinated operations across Tripura over the last 24 hours, twelve Bangladeshi nationals, including minors and transgender people, were detained.
The arrest was made on some intelligence inputs with the help of a joint team of Government Railway Police (GRP) and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at different locations in the state.
The most important one of these was at Jirania Railway Station where, after midnight, six Bangladeshi nationals were detained, including three transgender persons. According to police sources, they were destined for Mumbai. The arrests followed some reliable reports that a group of people was trying to cross the border and enter a train at Jirania station.
Tapas Das, Officer-in-Charge of GRP station, claims, "We had received information that some Bangladeshi nationals were attempting to cross over and board the train from Jirania Railway Station. We launched an operation and were able to capture them."
During preliminary questioning, the arrested detains claimed not to belong there, but after further questioning, they confessed that they belonged to Bangladesh.
The people arrested belonged to Bangladesh districts Kishoreganj and Noakhali. The GRP and BSF are still investigating the matter.
During another operation, police nabbed six more Bangladeshi nationals with three children from Udaipur Railway Station. They were arrested after a suspicious group of seven persons was noticed near the main auto stand at the station. Six of them disclosed their Bangladeshi nationality, while one was identified to be from the Nadia district of West Bengal.
The arrested people were Suriya Begum, 23, and Rubel Sheikh, 23, with minors Rahim Sheikh, 7, Tamim Sheikh, 6, Md Abdulla, 9, and Rahamtulla Hawladar, 7 from Khulna District of Bangladesh. The police also nabbed an Indian man, Md Hafizur, who is suspected to have helped these people shift illegally.
The apprehended persons were found to have attempted to cross India without proper documents. The probe is being conducted to find any human trafficking networks or illegal activities, in conjunction with border infiltration. It has been observed that in all such incidents, minors and transgender persons were also involved. This has taken the problem of vulnerability in cross-border smuggling operations of such groups to an altogether new level.
Such operations bring to the fore continued efforts by the Indian authorities at border railway stations to monitor and thwart attempts at illegal border crossings, similar to ones recently made in Tripura.
ALSO READ:
ALSO WATCH: