Indians detained in Bangladeshi jail released

After 13 years of imprisonment in the Moulvibazar district jail of Bangladesh, 17 Indians were released on Tuesday, and handed over to India’s Border Security Force (BSF). Three of them are from Tripura, while the rest are from various places in India. In 2004, the detainees from Tripura were captured by the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at the Indo-Bangla border near Kamalpur of Tripura, unfenced at that point of time. The three former detainees from Tripura are Sonjit Kumar Tripura, Ritong Tripura and Noyon Deb Bormon. They were escorted to Akhaura in Brahmanbaria district by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). Pleading ignorance of Kamalpur’s whereabouts, the three former detainees said: “We had gone to Kamalpur to pay our friend a visit. Inadvertently, as we were wandering around the area, we suddenly found ourselves at the Indo-Bangla border. It was unfenced at that point of time. So, it was unknown to us that it was a border. And thus, the BDR arrested us.” Along with the three former detainees from Tripura, A Nilu Singh was also escorted by the BGB to Akhaura. However, the BSF refused to take him as the man belongs to Thoubal district of Manipur in India.