Central, state agencies continue questioning of Pakistani woman arrested in Tripura

Agartala, Oct 13 Central and state intelligence and security officials are continuing the questioning of a 50-year-old Pakistani woman, arrested in southern Tripura, officials said on Monday.

A senior police official said that several central intelligence officials, along with senior Tripura police officers, are continuing their questioning of the woman, who is a resident of Pakistan’s Sheikhupura district.

“The woman was produced before a local court on Monday, which remanded her to three days of police custody. Joint interrogation by different central intelligence agencies will continue until full details about the woman and her intentions are revealed,” the official told IANS.

He said that the woman was arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel from southern Tripura’s Sabroom Railway Station on Saturday night after she arrived there by the Kanchanjunga Express.

The Kanchanjunga Express runs from Sealdah (Kolkata) to Sabroom, along the Bangladesh border, via Malda Town, New Jalpaiguri, Guwahati, Badarpur (southern Assam) and Agartala.

According to the official, the arrested woman speaks in Hindi and initially claimed that she stays in Purani Basti in Delhi and on being asked, she said that her name is Saheena Parveen. However, she could not produce any valid identity document in her favour.

The official said that several Pakistani contact numbers were found with her, concealed in sheets of paper tied around her waist.

During questioning, the woman initially claimed that she was a Pakistani national from the Punjab province, and stated that three years ago she entered Bangladesh and subsequently crossed into India through West Bengal with the help of an agent.

She told the officials that from West Bengal, she moved to Delhi, where she worked as a maid-servant.

The woman further claimed that she was attempting to return to Pakistan via Bangladesh and, following the instructions of an agent, arrived in Sabroom via the Kanchanjunga Express from Siliguri (West Bengal).

“After prolonged interrogation, the woman admitted that her initial statements were false. She revealed her true identity as Louis Nighat Akhtar Bhano, wife of Mohammad Golaf Faraj, from Village Younganabad, Chak No. 371, District Sheikhupura, Pakistan,” the police official said, quoting the interrogation report.

The woman confessed that she had travelled to Nepal 12 years ago with a passport for drug trafficking purposes, and in 2014, she was arrested by Nepal Police with one kg of brown sugar and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. She was kept in Kathmandu Jail, and last month, during unrest in Nepal, she escaped from custody.

Last month, she entered India and learnt from her associates and agent that she could return to Pakistan through Bangladesh by crossing the India-Bangladesh border via West Bengal or Tripura, the police official said.

“After the woman failed to cross into Bangladesh through the West Bengal border, she travelled to Tripura on the advice of an agent and arrived in Sabroom by the Kanchanjunga Express, intending to cross the border,” the official said.

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