Bangladesh border guards, BSF accuse each other of push-in attempts

BGB, the border patrolling force of Bangladesh, claimed on Friday that India’s BSF “made multiple attempts to push in people into Bangladeshi territory in the early hours of Thursday and Friday”.

In an official statement, Border Guard Bangladesh further pointed out to alleged incidents near their areas such as Lalmonirhat and Panchagarh (both close to Bengal’s Cooch Behar district), Naogaon (near South Dinajpur and Malda districts) and Chapainawabganj (near Malda and Murshidabad districts) in the last 24 hours and said that “over 70” people were stopped at the zero-line or the no-man’s land near the border. “They are currently stranded there,” said Lt Col Mehedi Imam, commanding officer of BGB’s 15 Lalmonirhat battalion.

TOI contacted at least three public relation officers of BSF for a response to these specific BGB allegations, with no reply so far.

This came even as BSF on Friday said they have thwarted an alleged BGB attempt “to help 10 Bangladeshi nationals, including women and children, infiltrate into India at Panishala in Cooch Behar’s Mekhliganj area”. BSF is said to have “soon deployed a few extra companies to ensure these people could not enter Indian territory”. BGB refuted BSF’s claims.

10 ‘disowned people’ stuck on Bangladesh border
The latest incident comes at a time when West Bengal govt has taken several measures to “identify and deport Bangladeshis illegally staying in the state”.

A video, meanwhile, surfaced where BSF and BGB personnel could be purportedly seen talking about the issue in front of some stranded people. As both BSF and BGB “disowned them”, the 10 people continued to remain stranded near the border. A flag meeting was tried, but BGB reportedly refused to be part of it. BSF has now intensified patrolling in the area.

On its part, BGB said that in Naogaon 17 people, including five children, were stopped at the zero line around 7.30am on Friday. And in Lalmonirhat, 33 people were stopped by them at three places — Hatibandha, Patgram and Aditmari — and its personnel rushed to the spot.

BGB further alleged that in a similar development, 28 people, including 10 women and six children, were stopped at zero line at Chapainawabganj around 3am on Thursday. A BGB statement further said that “the force is on high alert to prevent any infiltration or push-in attempts”. Incidentally, amid the latest “border incidents”, BGB brass is scheduled to meet their BSF counterparts in the 57th India-Bangladesh Border Coordination meeting to be held in Delhi from June 8 to 11.