Burmese group deported to Bangladesh by BSF

By Mithu Choudhury
Mizzima News

Guwahati/Assam - A group of 10 alleged Burmese nationals, including 4 children, have been arrested and detained by the police at Badarpur Railway Station in Southern Assam's Barak Valley in Northeastern India, on Tuesday, according to the police.

According to Additional Superintendent of Police, Himanta Kumar Das, of Assam state's Karimganj district, they have arrested and detained the Burmese nationals, who arrived in the north-eastern state from neighbouring Bangladesh, on February 10, 2009.

He said the Bardarpur police, after identifying them, had sent them back to the Border Security Force (BSF) in the Indo-Bangla border area of Mahisasan, and was awaiting the response of Bangladesh's Border Security forces to accept them.

Citing a victim's confession, Das told Mizzima that the 10 foreigners had crossed into Bangladesh from Burma's western state of Arakan. They had made their way into India, through the border state of Tripura.

Das said the police sent the group back to the Indo-Bangla border on Friday night and they were still in the custody of the BSF in Mahisasan town.

According to their confession the Burmese nationals were lured by a Bangladeshi agent, who allegedly took Rupees 35,000 and promised them better paying jobs in northern India's Rajasthan state.