Tripura: Woman at Border Identified as Bangladesh National, to be Sent for COVID Testing

Agartala, April 24, 2020:

A woman who has been stuck at the Tripura-Bangladesh border for 20 days has finally been identified as a Bangladesh national. She is soon to undergo testing for the deadly COVID-19 contagion, reports said.

With the discovery of the woman's identity, the standoff between BSF and BGB troops over the nationality of the mentally challenged woman stranded at a sandbar of river Feni in South Tripura seems to have come to an end.

According to sources in the Border Security Force (BSF), the women has been identified as 32-year-old Shahnaz Parvin and she belongs to Bangladesh’s Kurigram district. According to reports, she hails from the Daikhaoarchar village that falls under the jurisdiction of Ulipur Upajilla of Kurigram district. Her parents have been identified as Hatem Ali Seikh and Umela Khatun. Sources also said that she had gone missing two years back from her residence.

“The identity of the woman was disclosed by the higher authorities of Bangladesh after a number of media reports were published chronicling her plight. According to our inputs, Bangladesh authorities collected the swab samples of the woman to check for COVID-19”, our source confirmed.

He also added that she is still stranded on the sandbar and the BGB is set to escort her back once all the tests are conducted. Some of the sources told this reporter that the woman would be quarantined in her native district in some time after she is cleared for re-entry at the border.

It may be mentioned here that the woman had been denied entry by the BSF personnel guarding the borders on April 2 last. When she tried to retreat, she was pushed back by the villagers of Bangladesh. Since then, she has been stranded in the islet in the no man’s land over River Feni. BSF and BGB personnel held several discussions on the issue of the stranded woman, and now, it seems, both sides have reached an amicable settlement.

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