Agartala, April 11: According to police, three Bangladeshi women who were detained in March 2020 for their illegal entry into Tripura, have gone missing from the northern Tripura’s Unokoti district administration custody. Police have launched a massive search to nab the fleeing foreign nationals.

A police official in Agartala said that Istamur Ali and three other women – Lalmati Rani Sarkar, Janata Rani Sarkar and Khela Rani Sarkar, all resident of Nabiganj under Habiganj district of Bangladesh, were arrested by the police at Kailashahar on March 2020 after entering Tripura without any passports while trying to go to the neighbouring state, Assam.

The police official said that after completion of their jail term seven months ago, all the four Bangladeshis were under the custody of Unokoti district administration. The concerned Tripura authority in consultation with Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala had scheduled to repatriate the four Bangladeshi citizens to their country on Sunday.

An official said, “Just before their deportation, the officials found that three women, lodged in a school hostel, remained missing. Police continued a search operation on Sunday to locate the fleeing Bangladeshi nationals.”

Ali was, however, repatriated to Bangladesh on Sunday.