By Firstdespatch Desk Nov 08, 2023
Agartala, Nov 8 (FD) In a surprise pre-dawn soup today, teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted far-reaching raids in different parts of Tripura and arrested 25 criminals mostly involved in human trafficking and violations of the Passports Act.
Sources said the raids were conducted jointly by NIA and Border Security Forces (BSF) with the help of Tripura and Assam police and targeted the criminals, smugglers and touts, who are involved in human trafficking and help Rohingya Muslims sheltered in Chittagong in neighboring Bangladesh to enter India.
Sources said many NIA teams are conducting simultaneous operations in parts of North-East, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry.
The NIA's actions are part of an ongoing investigation related to the violation of the Passports Act and human trafficking.
Tripura has an 856 km long border and the length of the Indo-Bangla border encompassing the north eastern region and West Bengal is slightly more than 2000 km.
Sources in the state police department said that in February last, Assam police arrested a group of
Rohingyas from a train coming from Tripura and following thorough investigation stepped up surveillance and nabbed at least 450 Rohingyas or Bangladeshis, who were pushed back with the help of the BSF.
Sources said, India erected barbed wire fencing 150 yards away from the international border to adhere to the Indira-Mujib pact adding that patch of land was being used by the touts from Tripura and Bangladesh for entry into the Indian side.
Taking the advantage of porous barbed wire fencing the Bangladeshis or the Rohingyas who take shelter in that patch of land easily enter towns in Tripura and catch trains to go to the other parts of the country for jobs and also act as carriers of drugs.
Investigation exposed that the network of Touts existed across India, which was a serious National Security concern with Inter-State ramifications.
Sources said, as Assam was being used as a corridor for illegal trafficking and emerged as a security threat, the Assam government requested MHA to hand over such cases to NIA.
Sources in the intelligence agencies revealed that following inputs from the state and Assam police the NIA made a comprehensive simultaneous raid in different parts of the country and managed to arrest 80 percent of the notorious border criminals who used to be active as facilitators for the infiltrators had been arrested in the raids.
"Some of the touts have managed to abscond during the raids, but we hope to nab them soon”, a BSF official said. FD JK