38 Rohingyas, mostly minors, sent to judicial custody in Tripura

In all, 38 Rohingya Muslims, mostly children, detained from different parts of Tripura by the security forces, were on Monday sent to judicial custody and juvenile homes, police said.

A police official said that a local court in Agartala sent 31 Rohingya Muslims, including seven women and 17 children, for another term of judicial custody.

"The court offered bail to the adult foreigners, but they could not submit the bail bond, hence they would be in judicial custody till February 13. The 17 children will stay along with their mothers in the central jail," the official said.

According to him, the Border Security Force (BSF) had on January 22 handed over 31 Rohingya Muslims, who were stranded along the India-Bangladesh border since January 18, to the Tripura Police. Ever since, they were in the judicial custody and their 14-day judicial custody was ending on Monday.

Another local court in northern Tripura's Dharmanagar, 190 km north of the state capital, also sent seven more children of Rohingya Muslims to the juvenile home in the northern Tripura's district headquarters.

"The seven children would be in juvenile home till their cases are settled," an official of Government Railway Police (GRP) said.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Northeast Frontier Railways on Sunday detained six girls and a boy, belonging to the Rohingya community, at the Dharmanagar Railway Station adjoining Assam.

The children, aged between 13 to 17 years, were subsequently handed over to the GRP.

"The GRP on Monday produced the children in the local court and the court sent them to juvenile home," the official said.

He said that these children accompanied by touts reached Dharmanagar from Agartala by bus and intended to go to Badarpur in southern Assam by train. But, before the detention of these children, the touts fled.

With this, 68 Rohingya Muslims, mostly children, have been apprehended in Tripura and Assam-Tripura border in the last two weeks.

Tripura has a 856 km-long international border with Bangladesh, most of which is fenced except a stretch of nearly 20 km.

--IANS

sc/nir