Nine Rohingyas from Bangladesh, including women and children, were detained by locals on Tuesday evening (August 12) in Bishwambharpur, near the India–Bangladesh border in Katigorah, Cachar, while allegedly attempting to cross into Bangladesh through the international border. The detainees were later handed over to the Cachar Police.
According to sources, around 7 PM on Tuesday, residents spotted a group of unfamiliar people roaming in the area and questioned them. Two of the detainees, identified as Shamsur Rahman and Abubakar Siddiqui, revealed they had entered India illegally with their parents 20–22 years ago and had since been living in Hyderabad, working in various occupations.
They reportedly decided to return to Bangladesh following the Indian government’s intensified crackdown on suspicious foreigners. The group travelled from Hyderabad to Hilara Station in Katigorah on Tuesday morning, where they met a middleman who took them to Bishwambharpur. They were allegedly kept on a jungle-covered hillock for the entire day without food, forcing them to come out in the evening when children began crying from hunger.
When the locals saw them and, upon asking about their whereabouts, they were handed over to the police from Gumra Outpost.
The detainees claimed to be Rohingya and said their families were in Bangladesh. They alleged that the middleman had promised to help them cross the border.
Police sources stated that the group was brought to Silchar the same night. Reports indicate that over the past few months, more than a hundred suspected Bangladeshi nationals have been detained in Katigorah, mostly from its western areas. Each case has involved middlemen, but police are yet to crack down on the middlemen racket.
