Agartala: In a joint operation, BSF and Unakoti district police on Monday detained a total of 24 persons, including 10 children, on suspicion of being illegal Rohingya intruders from a place adjacent to the Kailashahar airport under Tripura’s Unakoti district. \
They were later found to be Rohingyas traveling from Kashmir to Tripura. The security agencies were, reportedly, alerted by local people.
“After their detention, they produced UNHRC issued refugee cards that bars any arbitrary detention. We have still kept them in police custody for examination; once all the doubts are cleared they would be released,” Superintendent of Police Unakoti district Kishore Debbarma said.
According to police sources, 14 out of the 24 detained persons are adults comprising eight males and six females. Rest of the others are children of various ages. Sources said, the Myanmar nationals were staying in Kashmir for the last five years.
They reached Guwahati onboard Amarnath express a few days back. They took the Kanchanjunga express to reach Kumarghat, the closest railway station from the spot of detention. One Moulana (Muslim Scholar) accompanied them till Kumarghat and later hired three vehicles from Kailashahar’s Muslim-dominated northern region.
However, the detention took place close on the heels of another such incident at Dharmanagar and Khowai. It is learnt that they had arrived in Tripura to celebrate Eid.
All the arrested persons were released at around 12:30 am on Tuesday. The police said that they were released after a primary examination of the documents and all of them were found to be Myanmar nationals sheltered at an Indian refugee camp.
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