23 Bangladeshi nationals held in Tripura

Agartala, March 3  As many as 23 Bangladeshi nationals, including nine women and three children, have been arrested in Tripura for illegally entering Indian territory, police said here on Thursday.

"Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested 23 Bangladeshi nationals at Gandachara in northern Tripura late on Wednesday. Later, a local court sent 20 of them to judicial custody and three children to a juvenile home and asked the police to present them in court again on March 8," police spokesman Uttam Kumar Bhowmik told IANS.

He said the Bangladeshis, all tribals, told the police that they came to Tripura from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts to take remedial advice from a tribal traditional practitioner.

Another police official said the detainees told the police that 43 Bangladeshi nationals, including the 23 arrested, entered Tripura to seek consultation about their ailment from the tribal doctor.

Police were looking for the remaining trespassers.

Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh and most parts of the frontier are fenced, mountainous and riverine.