11 months on, mother-daughter duo in Bangladesh jail after crossing border to see tantric

Efforts were being made to bring back a woman and her daughter lodged at a jail in Bangladesh for nearly a year after they got caught while crossing the international border to visit a tantric, officials in West Bengal's Nadia district said on Monday.

Shobha Khatun, a student of Class 9 who lives in Burnpur Kulopara in Krishnaganj block near the border, suddenly fell ill around 11 months back and her symptoms were strange, her father Mansur Ali Mandal said.

The villagers told the family that some evil spirit got hold of Shobha and they should take her to a tantric in the neighbouring village of Benipur, which is in Bangladesh, to get her out of the evil eye, he said.

A few Indian villages in this area are outside the barbed fence, including Burnpur Kulopara. There are no physical barriers between such villages and Bangladesh except a few small pillars, demarcating the two countries, officials said.

As Shobha and her mother Golebibi crossed the border, they were apprehended by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel, they said.

Since then, the mother-daughter duo is lodged in a jail in the neighbouring country.

District police officials said efforts were being to bring them back and the Bangladesh Government is cooperating with the Indian authorities.

Recently, the Bangladesh authorities contacted Indian officials to verify their identities, official sources said.

The Indian authorities have already verified their identities and they might be brought back within 10 days, the sources said.

The BSF will soon fix a date in coordination with the BGB for their handover at the Gede border checkpoint, they said.

A teary-eyed Mansur Ali, a daily wager, now waits near the border to get back his wife and daughter.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)