24 Bangladeshis with suspected terror links held in Tripura railway station

Officials said all the 24 Bangladeshi youths were carrying fake Aadhaar cards and a team of National Investigation Agency sleuths is coming from Guwahati on Friday to interrogate them.

Twenty-four Bangladeshi youths with suspected terror links were arrested from Agartala railway station on Thursday, a senior police official said.

Officials said the fake Aadhaar cards were issued from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Some of the arrested youths had identity cards issued from different madrasas of India. (Picture for representation)

All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards and a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is coming from Guwahati on Friday to interrogate the youths, the official said.

Acting on a tip-off, Mobile Task Force (MTF) personnel raided the railway station and arrested the 24 Bangladeshis, who reached here from Delhi in the Tripura Sundari Express, MTF Superintendent of Police Abhijit Chowdhury told PTI.

The MTF, a section of the state police, deals with illegal immigration and related cases.

“All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards, showing they were issued from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We checked the Aadhaar cards online and found they were fake. Some of them had identity cards issued from different madrasas of our country,” Chowdhury said.

“A team of NIA officials is coming from Guwahati tomorrow (Friday) to interrogate them,” Chowdhury said adding, “We cannot rule out the possibility of their link with any terrorist outfit.”

“The youths were not carrying any valid passport. Three had Bangladeshi passports but those expired long back,” he said. Following the arrests, the DGP asked various central and state intelligence agencies to interrogate them.