BDR returns two Indian boys after eighteen months in jail

Agartala, Jun 28 (UNI) Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) returend two school students, who had served one-and-half years in a Bangladesh jail for unknowingly crossing international boundary while playing football, to Indian authorities yesterday.

The BDR jawans have handed over Bijoy Karmakar and Mithun Hrishidas of Aralia near here to BSF at Akhaura checkpost last evening. They were arrested by BDR in December 2006 for crossing the international boundary at Kasba area of Tripura.

Both of them were playing football in a ground and crossed the border inadvertently, when BDR caught them and produced them before Comilla Court.

The Comilla District Court had asked the authorities to release them within a month of their arrest after taking a penalty of Rs 1000 each. But it did not happen because a Parliamentary Committee on deportation had not approved the deportation order as their names spelling did not tally with Indian documents and court's papers.

According to Mithun's father Ranjan Hrishidas, he had gone to Bangladesh five times to get back his son and Bijoy but jail authorities refused him repeatedly showing various administrative difficulties.

They had miserable life in the jail, as they were not being provided sufficient amenities.

UNI