Tension along Bangladesh border as ‘hundreds’ try to cross in after ‘push back’ by India side

According to sources, hundreds of people started gathering near the border on the Bangladesh side in the morning, armed with lathis, and tried to cross over into Indian territory. As BSF jawans posted at the border drove them away, crowds gathered on the Indian side too.

“There was tension but we dealt with the situation adequately,” a senior BSF officer said.

Since the BJP came to power, the Bengal government has announced its intention to intensify the identification of infiltrators and to push them into Bangladesh. The attempts have been objected to by Bangladesh, and resisted by the Border Guard Bangladesh.

A local villager, Chapala Mondol, said: “Hundreds of people from Bangladesh tried to enter our side. The BSF and villagers rushed to the border and thwarted them. The BSF needs to put up fencing here for our security.”

Khagen Murmu, the BJP Lok Sabha MP from Maldaha Uttar, said the BJP government was doing everything to correct the situation, repeating the allegation that the Trinamool Congress government did not give land to the BSF for fencing the border.

“Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that national security is our priority. The state government has started identifying infiltrators and pushing them back. However some elements in Bangladesh are trying to prevent this. This is what happened at the Sukdevpur border outpost today… But we are determined,” Murmu said.

Raju Karmakar, the BJP MLA from Baishnabnagar, said: “Infiltrators trying to change the demographics of the country are being pushed back into Bangladesh.”

In his very first Cabinet meeting as Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari had announced that all the land the BSF needs for fencing the Indo-Bangla border would be handed over. As per government officials, more than 142 acres of land has already been given.

The CM also announced a “delete, detect and deport” policy to find illegal infiltrators and push them back into Bangladesh, and setting up of detention centres for this. On June 7, Adhikari claimed that 4,800 “illegal infiltrators” had been deported to Bangladesh over the past one month.