E-Paper
235 Indians stranded in Bangladesh return via three land border posts in NE
A total of 129 people from Tripura returned through the Agartala-Akhaura border, where the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Riva Ganguly Das, was present to oversee their departure.
A total of 235 Indian nationals, who were stranded in Bangladesh for over two months, due to the nationwide ongoing lockdown restrictions, which were imposed on March 25 to control the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, returned to the country on Thursday via three land border posts in the north-east region.
The repatriation was part of the Centre’s ongoing Vande Bharat mission – the biggest evacuation exercise since the invasion of Kuwait by the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990. A bulk of those returned home included students and workers from Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur.
A total of 129 people from Tripura returned through the Agartala-Akhaura border, where the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Riva Ganguly Das, was present to oversee their departure.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) from West Tripura constituency Protima Bhoumik was present at the Agartala-Akhaura border to welcome the Tripura residents back home. The MP gifted face masks and hand sanitisers to the Indian High Commission team.
Around 100 of the returnees from Assam came back through the Sutarkandi-Sheola border post and a few others from Meghalaya and Manipur returned via the Dawki-Tamabil frontier post in Meghalaya.
Noni Gopal Dutta, a Tripura resident, was one of those Indian nationals, who returned home on Thursday. He had gone to Bangladesh as a tourist on March 11 and his visa was to expire on March 26. When Dutta reached the border post on March 23 to return to India, he was sent back, as the international border had been sealed because of the lockdown restrictions.
“I immediately contacted the Indian Embassy officials, who took good care of me for the past two months. I had lost touch with my family for the past two months, as my mobile phone had got stolen. I’m excited to return home,” Dutta said in a video shared by the Indian High Commission authorities in Bangladesh.
