A boat carrying at least 142 suspected Rohingya refugees, including women and children, was intercepted by coastal security agencies near Shaheed Dweep in Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Sunday, police said.

The boat left from Bangladesh around 14-15 days ago and was on its way to Indonesia, they said.

On Sunday morning, the Port Blair police control room received a call from the local intelligence about suspicious boat movement near Shaheed Dweep (previously known as Neil Island), and multiple coastal security agencies (including the navy, coast guard and marine police) swung into action and located it, officials said.

Those onboard include 47 women and 59 minors.

The boat was towed to Shaheed Dweep by the marine police, as it developed some technical snag and was unfit for further journey, police said.

All of them were taken to Port Blair and kept in a temporary shelter by the local administration for further instruction from the central government, they said.

Earlier, on February 13, a motorboat with 69 Rohingyas had reached the Nicobar district. It was travelling to Indonesia, but got disrupted by bad weather, the officials said.

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