Nine Rohingya refugees were arrested from a train in Tripura capital Agartala on Thursday, December 15, by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) it has been reported.
According to the police version, these nine Rohingyas, had “illegally entered Tripura through the porous stretch of Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura”, and were held during a drive by the RPF for the detection of illegal migrants at Agartala railway station.
Among the nine are five women and four men. “On interrogation, they could not produce any valid documents and later confessed that they were from Bangladesh and Rohingyas of Myanmar origin,” said Sabyasachi De, the chief public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).
Those arrested thereafter were handed over to Government Railway Police, Tripura for further legal action, De said. “the RPF staff deployed at stations and trains are very vigilant and keep a close eye on illegal migrants and suspected persons,” he said. The detainees, according to the railway police statements, were about to catch a train for travelling outside the Northeast, in search of shelter and jobs, police said.
Thousands of Rohingyas fled Rakhaine state of Myanmar following ethnic clashes between the ethnic Buddhists and Islamic Rohingyas since 1997. They have been taking shelter in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Some of them have entered India through Indo-Myanmar borders in Mizoram and Manipur and India-Bangladesh border in Tripura.
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