70K BSF personnel on standby to thwart influx of Bangladesh refugees

Animesh Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 11

India has reinforced its land borders in several northeastern states adjoining Bangladesh to prevent Bangladeshi nationals from entering the country.

According to highly placed officials in the BSF, as many as 70,000 personnel are on high alert to prevent any such incident from taking place. Most of the people waiting on the border are said to be from Bangladesh’s minority communities.

The BSF has opened communication channels with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to prevent people from crossing over. “We are opening communication channels with the BGB in order to remove any misunderstanding,” a top official said.

No incidents of armed attacks or forcible entry into the Indian territory had taken place across the Eastern Command, he said. “However, if such an incident happens, we are in readiness to reply militarily also,” he asserted.

Nobody was being allowed to enter the Indian territory and any such attempts since August 5, when the Sheikh Hasina government fell, had been handled peacefully, another senior official confirmed to The Tribune.

Referring to the August 9 incident, when around 1,700 Bangladeshi nationals came near the Indian border in Bengal’s Cooch Behar sector via a rivulet, the BSF officials said it was a “peaceful” incident, as they were neither armed nor had they tried to enter forcefully.

“These incidents cannot be termed infiltrations, which are armed and forced. However, reinforcements are in place around the Eastern Command near the Bangladesh border to counter infiltration attempts,” said the official. Sources, however, admitted the BSF had a hard time pushing back Bangladeshi nationals with the help of BGB officials.

On the morning of August 9, a group of 10 to 15 Bangladeshis, all Hindus, had tried to enter India near the border village of Bhogdanga in Assam’s Dhubri district, but they were turned away under the protection of the BGB, the sources added.

The Chief Ministers of Assam and Tripura had already stated their borders had been secured and no one had entered their territories from the neighbouring country.

2 Indian facilitators among nine held

BSF troops in collaboration with the Meghalaya Police nabbed seven Bangladeshi nationals along with two Indian facilitators at a checkpoint on August 10. The apprehended illegal migrants and Indian facilitators were handed over to the police station concerned for further disposal and legal action.