Agartala: Tripura police arrested as many as 26 Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in Agartala city for months and allegedly involved in theft cases and burglaries in and around Agartala for the last three weeks.
The people residing Rajnagar locality of Agartala had detained as many as 16 Bangladeshi nationals on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday from a house and handed them over to the police.
Within 24 hours of the arrest of 16 Bangladeshi, West Agartala police based on the army intelligence input arrested 10 more Bangladeshi nationals in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday in the Ramnagar area of the city.
All of them were sent to jail and the initial investigation revealed that they were involved in theft and burglaries. The police said an investigation has been launched to crack down on the gang operating jointly by a group here with Bangladeshis.
They were booked under Passport Act and trespassing into India illegally. The eastern suburbs of Agartala have reported three daring dacoities recently where armed criminals compelled the landlords to hand over the cash, ornaments, and valuables.
The gang had stormed the houses at midnight and opened the doors from outside without breaking and awakening up the family members before carrying out robberies.
Police have not yet been able to arrest a single criminal involved in the crime. The residents of the suburbs have been spending sleepless nights in a group with portable lights and bamboo sticks against the dacoits.
“Many Bangladeshis enter Tripura in an illegal way cutting the barbed-wire fence of the Indo-Bangla border and some amongst us are allowed to stay in their homes. These Bangladeshi nationals come here with an evil motive of holding thefts, robberies, and even murders,” police alleged.
The villagers accused the police and BSF of being behind the illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals into Tripura and alleged, “The cross-border criminal gang operating in the state, especially in Agartala and other bordering towns of Tripura are closely connected with BSF and police.”
Meanwhile, West Agartala police said, “We received the intelligence tip that some Bangladeshi people residing at Ramnagar area in Agartala late at night and carried out a joint raid with the Army at Ramnagar Road 5. The 11 youths including one from Khowai district of Tripura have been residing in a rented house there concealing their identity.”
Police recovered mobiles and currencies of India and Bangladesh from their possession and all of them were mason by profession and have come here to Agartala illegally without a passport and other valid documents.
