12 Bangladeshi nationals arrested in Tripura after two-week-long tussle with Bangladesh Border Guards

Twelve suspected Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested in Tripura and remanded to judicial custody on Saturday after BSF's two-week-long efforts to convince Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) that they are illegal migrants from the neighbouring country yielded no result.

The 12 suspected Bangladeshi nationals, including five children remained stranded on the zero line of India-Bangladesh border in Sipahijala district since July 11 as BGB did not accept BSF's claim that they are citizens of the neighbouring country.

"We had handed over all details to BGB during a commander level flag meeting on July 21 including their home addresses in Commila district in Bangladesh. But the BGB refused to accept them saying they could not locate their home addresses there. So we handed over all 12 to police at Madhupur police station on Saturday for necessary action. They were produced in a court and were remanded to judicial custody," a BSF official posted in Tripura told DH on Sunday.

The group, including five women and five children aged between two to 14 years, were caught by BSF personnel near the border at Miapara village in Sepahijala district, about 25kms from the state capital Agartala on July 11. The BSF personnel claimed that they had illegally crossed the border but the BGB personnel did not allow them to cross the border without documentary proof of their citizenship.

BSF, however, provided them food and shelter in an abandoned house near the border.

Police sources said they have been booked under sections of Indian Passport Act and Foreigners Act. They are now lodged in Bishalgarh central jail in Sipahijala, said the source.

Tripura shares 856km border with Bangladesh of which nearly 67kms have remained unfenced. There is no no men's land in Tripura unlike other borders and zero line is considered as the border. Indian fencing has been erected 150 yards from the zero line.

Similar "illegal migration" has caused tussles between BSF and BGB in the past too.