Agartala, Dec 7 (IANS): Tripura Police on Saturday detained 10 Bangladeshi nationals, belonging to the Hindu community, after they illegally entered India by fleeing their village due to unrest and tensions in the neighbouring country, 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 before boarding a Silchar (Assam)-bound train.
“We would initiate legal proceedings against the Bangladeshi nationals as per law,” the official said.
Sankar Chandra Sarkar, who led the intruders, said that after facing continuous threats and intimidation, they fled from their Dhanpur village in Kishoreganj district.
“After trekking the forested hills of an arduous route overnight, 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 would 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,” Sarkar, who worked as a driver to run the house, said.
Talking to the media, he said that they sold some of their properties before fleeing into India, but they had to abandon many of their properties and household goods and assets.
Sarkar claimed that thousands of Hindu families wanted to come to India, but they 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, they were continuously harassed and threatened,” the visibly panicky middle-aged man said.
Over the last four months, over 550 Bangladeshi nationals and over 63 Rohingyas were arrested 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, BSF enhanced surveillance along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border with the neighbouring country to prevent transborder crime and infiltration, BSF officials said.
Five Indian states – West Bengal (2216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam ( 263 km) share a border with Bangladesh.
The BSF on a number of occasions foiled several infiltration attempts by hundreds of Bangladeshi nationals comprising Hindus and Muslims.