263 Indians from four NE states return from Bangladesh, quarantined

Agartala/Silchar (Assam), May 28 (IANS): A total of 263 Indians, who were stranded in Bangladesh for more than two months, returned to the country on Thursday and were admitted to institutional quarantine centres in their respective northeastern states, officials said.

According to police and civil officials, these Indians, belonging to Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur, entered India through the Akhaura-Agartala integrated check-post (ICP) in Tripura and Sutarkandi checkpost in Karimganj district of southern Assam.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Karimganj, Prashanta Datta said that of the 134 who came, 24 and six hailed from Manipur and Meghalaya, respectively, and authorities from their states took them away.

He said that 104 Assam residents were sent to different institutional quarantine centres and their swab samples would be tested.

Officials in Agartala said that 129 Indians returned from Bangladesh on Thursday through the Akhaura-Agartala ICP and were subsequently admitted to the institutional quarantine centre in Agartala.

Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das also reached the Akhaura-Agartala ICP by road from Dhaka to supervise the return formalities. Tripura MP and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pratima Bhowmik also visited the ICP.

Tripura Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said 133 Tripura residents, stranded in Bangladesh for more than two months, had earlier approached the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

“The returnees would remain at the quarantine centre till their samples tested negative for coronavirus. Given the wide spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh, the authorities have been extra careful about the people coming from there,” Nath told the media.

In Bangladesh, 40,321 people have been infected by coronavirus and 560 have died.

The Minister said the Kuwait government would deport 135 Indians belonging to Assam (89) and Tripura (46). They would reach Guwahati by an aircraft on Friday night. Quoting from the MEA communication, Nath said they were in Kuwaiti jails for violation of that country’s laws. The Tripura government will send two buses to Guwahati to bring the Tripura residents, who would be tested for coronavirus on arrival and quarantined in Agartala, he said.