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Mysterious youths keep Thiruvananthapuram police guessing

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Mystery surrounds a 15-member group of foreign adventurers detained in Thiruvananthapuram for over a month now for want of travel documents. All attempts by the police to establish the nationality of these youths aged between 18 and 22 have drawn blank so far.

The group comprising eight girls and seven boys was deported on November 9 to Thiruvananthapuram from Istanbul after the Turkish emigration officials found them travelling on fake passports. The female members of the group have been lodged at the Central Jail after they made an unsuccessful bid to escape from a women's shelter. The boys continue to occupy the barracks at a local police station.

The youths, who appear to be of South Asian origin, have been making contradictory claims on their nationality. They have also baffled the police by conversing in a language completely unintelligible. Assistance of interpreters sought by the police has not helped. Some of the foreign missions contacted by the police on the basis of the claims made by these youths have not evinced any interest.

The police suspect that the group has links with a local group, which is keen on getting them out of the country. This suspicion was strengthened when the girls fled from the government-run derelict women's shelter at Poojappura. They managed to reach neighbouring Tamil Nadu with the help of a 29-year-old youth Myan-Too.

In a swift move, the state police traced the eight girls and the young man with the help of their counterparts in Tamil Nadu within hours.

Myan-Too was found in possession of eight Gulf Air tickets (Chennai-Bahrain-Istanbul-Tokyo) and $ 8,000 in cash. He told police that the tickets were meant for the girls to get out of the country using a new set of passports.

The 15-member group had first entered India in October from Bangladesh through the West Bengal border district of Midnapur. They reached Kovalam in November, after touring the country widely in two hired cars.

Later, they flew out from the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Istanbul via Bahrain on a Gulf Air flight only to be caught and deported to Kerala by the Turkish authorities.

The seven male members of the group are idling away their time at the Valiyathura police station

. Sources said they eat four times a day. Fried rice and chicken are their favourite. When they are asked about their home they become gloomy. Only one of them can converse in broken English. However, They have picked up the local tongue and they now ask for water and food in Malayalam.

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