100 students return from violence-hit Bangladesh through Tripura border

AGARTALA : Around 100 students returned to India on Saturday from violence-hit Bangladesh through two integrated checkposts in Tripura, the Border Security Force said here. More students are expected to return to the country, BSF, Tripura Frontier said in a statement. "Indian and foreign students, who are studying in Bangladesh, are returning to India as the agitation has now become violent. Today, till 1600 hrs, approx 100 students, including those from Nepal, have returned using valid documents," it said.

Bangladesh continued to reel under deadly clashes over a controversial job quota system. BSF is closely monitoring the situation across the border and troops are on high alert, the statement said. BSF, Tripura Frontier, Inspector General (IG) Patel Piyush Purushottam Das assured all possible assistance to the students and spoke to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers for cooperation at their end. BSF has made "all necessary arrangements, including refreshments and transport, at the ICPs to facilitate smooth arrival and further movement of the students to their destinations", it said.

"Around 240 students from Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram and Nepal, who have been studying in Bangladesh are expected to return through the state's two ICPs- Srimantapur and Akhaura. The DMs concerned were asked to coordinate with BSF," said a senior state government official. In West Bengal, five Nepalese students crossed over at the Fulbari border outpost near Siliguri on Saturday, while six Indian students returned via the Mekhliganj border gate in Cooch Behar district, police said.

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Rahul Rai, a Nepalese student at Rangpur Medical College in Bangladesh, told reporters, "The situation is bad in Bangladesh. Clashes with security forces are taking place everywhere. We felt unsafe and decided to return." A source from the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission said figures of students entering India will be available to the immigration authorities, who are still collating the data. A Bangladeshi tourist at the Petrapole border outpost in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district expressed concern about the lack of communication with relatives in Jessore. He and his friends had initially planned to visit Darjeeling but decided to return due to escalating violence in their country.