30 more Guwahati-bound Rohingyas held in Tripura-Assam border

Agartala, Jan 21 (IANS) Even as 31 Rohingya Muslims are stranded along the India-Bangladesh borders since Friday, 30 more Rohingyas, including 12 children, were on Monday night apprehended along the Tripura-Assam border, a police officer said.

"The Assam police have arrested 30 Rohingya Muslims from a Guwahati-bound bus at Churaibari along the inter-state border on Monday night," North Tripura Distrct police chief Bhanupada Chakraborty told IANS over phone from the district headquarts Dharmanagar, 200 km north of Agartala.

Quoting Assam police officials, he said that the 30 Rohingya Muslims, including nine women and 12 children, boarded the Guwahati bound bus from Agartala.

Chakraborty said senior Assam police officials would interrogate the detainees in Karimganj, one of the four districts of southern Assam. They would be produced in a local court in Karimganj on Tuesday.

Further details about these foreign national are awaited.

Meanwhile, 31 Rohingya Muslims are stranded since Friday at Zero Line on the India-Bangladesh border with western Tripura.

A meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), supposed to be held on Monday over the 31 Rohingya Muslims, did not take place.

"We are waiting instructions from the BSF headquarters in Delhi by Tuesday about the next course of action concerning these 31 Rohingya Muslims," a BSF official told IANS late on Monday night refusing to disclose his indentity.

Deputy Inspector General of BSF Brajesh Kumar told the media that the BSF has been providing food and other basic necessities to the six men, nine women and 16 children on humanitarian ground.

The Bangladeshi media said that the BGB Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Gomal Kabir, who is the commandant of 25 Battalion of the BGB, has alleged that the BSF has been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory. The BSF rejected the charge.