Sylhet Correspondent: It has been alleged that 13 Bangladeshis have been abducted by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) from the Tamabil Sonatila border area of Gowainghat upazila in Sylhet.
After their arrest last Sunday (December 22) night, the BSF handed them over to the Juwai police station in Meghalaya state of India on Monday (December 23), according to multiple local sources. However, the matter could not be confirmed by the BGB or the police till Monday night.
In this regard, Lieutenant Colonel Md. Hafizur Rahman, commander of the Sylhet Battalion (48 BGB), said, I have heard about the matter. But no one has filed a written complaint so far.
Local UP member and East Jaflong Union Parishad panel chairman Abdul Mannan said that relatives of some of the abducted workers have contacted him and asked about their whereabouts. The detainees are residents of different areas of the Gowainghat and Jaintapur upazilas.
However, UP member Mannan could not confirm why they went to the border or how the BSF caught them.
The Bangladeshis who are rumored to have been detained are Sohag (24) of Guchchagram in Gowainghat upazila, Rubel (22), son of Siraj Mia, of the same village, Mobarak (20), son of Jamal Mia, Roni (21), son of Dhanu Mia, and two youths named Arif and Nayan from Sonatila village and some unidentified others.
According to local sources, 13 Bangladeshis infiltrated into India through the Sonatila border in the Tamabil area of Gowainghat upazila of Sylhet at around 8 pm last Sunday to bring Indian sugar. Later, BSF members caught them from the sugar warehouse. Then on Monday afternoon, they were sent to jail by the Indian police.
