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Three Rohingya men arrested in Tripura
An officer said the Border Security Force detained them from Dharmanagar railway station and handed them over to the Tripura Police
Three Rohingya Muslim men have been arrested while preparing to leave Tripura for Delhi, a police officer said on Wednesday. Mohammad Naseer, Mohammad Ismail, and Rahimullah are believed to have entered Tripura on March 18 from Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar a month ago.
The officer said the Border Security Force detained them from Dharmanagar railway station and handed them over to the Tripura Police. They were produced in a court and sent to police remand for three days.
The three have been booked under Section 3 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with offences outside India, and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
Police cited a preliminary investigation and said they did not find anything except a diary that the three claimed to have bought from Bangladesh. They added the diary has some writings in Urdu and the police are yet to find out what they are about. The three are believed to have told police they were on their way to Delhi to pursue their studies.
“We are trying to find out what is written in Urdu in the diary. Our investigation is on,” said sub-divisional police officer Debasish Saha.
India has sought to repatriate members of the Rohingya Muslim community living in the country, who have also faced the ire of right-wing groups. Over 700,000 Rohingya escaped Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 amid mass killings, arson, and rapes. The UN described the Myanmar military’s action against them as ethnic cleansing.
The Union home ministry in August last year said Rohingya refugees in New Delhi would be held at a detention centre and then deported.
The first batch of seven Rohingya Muslims was deported from Assam to Myanmar in October 2018 after the Union government in 2017 asked states to identify and deport them even as the UN said the forcible return was a violation of international law.
The Supreme Court earlier rejected a petition seeking to stop the government from deporting the seven.
A Rohingya Muslim family of five was deported from Assam to Myanmar as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigrants in January 2019.
In April 2021, a 14-year-old Rohingya Muslim girl was deported from Assam even as the UN refugee agency and rights groups sought to halt the process.
