Agartala, September 22: In a significant operation, a joint team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Police Force (RPF) arrested 14 individuals, including 11 Bangladeshi nationals, from Badharghat Railway Station in Agartala who were present in a local court on Sunday.
The group includes four women and were apprehended before they could board long-distance trains headed to Ahmedabad and Chennai, officials said today.
Speaking to reporters, Tapas Das, the in-charge of the Government Railway Police at Agartala Station, said, “We arrested 14 people from Agartala Railway Station last evening. Among them, 11 are Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally crossed the Indo-Bangla international border and were about to board trains to reach Ahmedabad and Chennai.”
The joint operation also led to the arrest of three Indian nationals who acted as facilitators for the illegal border crossing.
Two of these touts are from Tripura, while the third is from Silchar, Assam.
The arrested individuals were produced in a local court today, with the police seeking custody for further investigation.
During the arrest, the authorities recovered several items, including Indian and Bangladeshi currency notes, Bangladeshi identity documents, and mobile phones.
According to Das, initial questioning revealed that seven of the Bangladeshi nationals are from Khagrachari district, while the remaining four are from Narail district in Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi nationals were identified as Md. Robel (28), Kamrul Hasan (24), Md. Sayim (26), Kashem (19), Md. Ayub Ali (25), Shohag Miah (27), and Md. Kamal Uddin (40), all hailing from Khagrachari.
Meanwhile, 35-year-old Manoara Begam, Swapna Khatun (26), Jali Begam (25), and Parvin Begam (45) were confirmed to be from Narail district.
It was further revealed that Begam, Khatun, and Jali Begam were involved in facilitating cross-border human trafficking.
The Indian touts arrested include Niyamat Hossain (31) and Pintu Miah (27), both from a slum area in West Tripura district, and Prasenjit Sarkar from Silchar, Assam.
This is not the first incident of cross-border infiltration in Tripura. Just days earlier, on September 17, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel arrested three Bangladeshi nationals attempting to enter Indian territory by crossing the border fence in Tripura’s Sepahijala district.
The BSF has ramped up surveillance along the Indo-Bangladesh border to curb illegal infiltration, apprehending 65 Bangladeshi nationals attempting to cross the border this month alone.
Earlier this month, on September 11, BSF forces apprehended three other Bangladeshi nationals based on a tip-off from two different locations.
One of the arrested individuals revealed during interrogation that economic hardships and a severe lack of employment opportunities in Bangladesh had driven them to cross into India.
Tripura shares an 856 km-long border with Bangladesh, of which large portions are secured with barbed wire fencing. However, some patches remain unfenced due to local disputes, providing opportunities for illegal infiltration.
Authorities remain vigilant, with ongoing efforts to prevent further illegal crossings and human trafficking operations along the porous Indo-Bangladesh border.
