25 Rohingyas including 6 women, 7 children held in Tripura: Police

Agartala: The Tripura Police have arrested 25 Rohingyas, including six women and seven children from two different parts in North Tripura district for entering the state without valid documents, officials said on Friday.

Police said they were arrested from Dharmanagar and Churaibari areas on Thursday night while attempting to leave for Hyderabad in search of employment opportunities.

Prima facie it suggests that the group intruded through Sonamura in Sepahijala district and Kailashahar in Unakoti district from Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity.

They were supposed to travel to Guwahati by bus and then Hyderabad via train, the officer said.

Tripura shares a total 856 km long international border with Bangladesh, parts of some patches are yet to be fenced. 

A total of 1,018 people, including 498 Bangladeshi nationals, have been detained in Tripura between January last year till April 15 this year while trying to cross the Indo-Bangla international border, according to a Border Security Force (BSF) report.

The detentions of the infiltrators have increased compared to previous years. In 2022, the BSF detained 369 people, including 150 Bangladeshi nationals, 160 Indians and 59 Rohingyas, while in 2021, 208 intruders, among whom 115 were Indians and 93 were Bangladeshis, were also detained.