Tripura police in a fix as 18 Muslims from Bangladesh hold Aadhaar card

AGARTALA: The police in Tripura are in a fix with 18 Muslim men of suspected nationality who sneaked in from Bangladesh armed with Aadhaar cards saying they are from Murshidabad in West Bengal.

Residents in Adamnagar village in Sepahijala district bordering Bangladesh had caught the 18 on Sunday and handed them over to the police. A 9 km stretch of Tripura’s 856 km border with Bangladesh in the district is unfenced.

The youths were thought to be Rohingya at first, but they produced Aadhar cards to claim to be Indians. Police are trying to establish if the Aadhar cards are genuine and how the 18 reached Tripura from West Bengal via Bangladesh.

Sepahijala district superintendent of police Sudipta Das said they are yet to get the permission to interrogate the youths who are in judicial custody till November 6.

“We are trying to find their identity through UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) and whether or not they are Bangladeshi nationals,” Das said.

A lesser police officer said the 18 had soon after their arrest claimed they entered Bangladesh and stayed in the country for an unspecified number of days before straying into Tripura. “We are not ruling out the possibility of their connection with terror groups,” he said.

Officials in the state’s mobile task force said this is the first time that infiltrators claiming to be Indians have entered Tripura illegally from Bangladesh.

Apart from Bangladeshis, an average seven Nigerians have entered Tripura from across the border every year.

The state has deported several foreign nationals in recent years, including 1,679 until September this year.

› We are trying to find their identity through UIDAI and whether or not they are Bangladeshi nationals. We are not ruling out the possibility of their connection with some terror groups. SUDIPTA DAS , Sepahijala district superintendent of police