In yet another crackdown on illegal infiltrators, the police of Government Railway Police (GRP) jointly with the RPF on Saturday detained at least eleven Bangladeshi nationals and three Indian touts from Agartala railway station.

The officer in-charge of GRP station Tapas Das informed that based on an intelligence input on Saturday last, the police of both the GRP and RPF laid an ambush inside the rail station and later suspecting their movement they detained at least eleven Bangladeshi nationals and three Indian touts. All the arrested Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally crossed the India-Bangladesh international border and were about to board long-haul trains to Ahmedabad and Chennai, the police officer said.

The Bangladeshi nationals have been 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, Manoara Begam, 35, Swapna Khatun, 26, Jali Begam, 25, and Parvin Begam, 45.

Of the three Indian touts, two – Niyamat Hossain, 31, and Pintu Miah, 27 – are based in Tripura, while the third, Prasenjit Sarkar, has been identified to be a resident of Silchar in Assam.

We launched a hunt to track down the ‘Agents’ who are facilitating the infiltration of the people from Bangladesh. The agents locally known as ‘Linemen’ are active in specific border areas marked for the intrusion from across the border. The places are fenced and guarded, but the ‘Linemen’ have the access and the ability to transfer the people through safe corridors in lieu of money. Most of the infiltration bids occurred during the night and the Agents arranged ladders on both sides of the fencing to smuggle men and women who pay for the service, said the police officer.