Staff Reporter :
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has assured that there is nothing to be worried about India’s bid to pushing people into Bangladesh.
“None will be allowed to enter the country from India except Bangladeshis and we’ll receive people if they are Bangladeshi citizens,” he said this at a press briefing at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
The minister said, “There had been attempts to deport people from India, but Bangladesh’s border guards thwarted the bids. The number of such people was in “several hundreds, not thousands.”
“They (India) had tried to push 20-50 people at a time into Bangladesh earlier,” he explained.
Asaduzzaman Khan added, “We won’t allow anyone to enter Bangladesh without being sure. It’s up to us how we receive them if they’re confirmed as Bangladesh’s citizens.”
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is capable enough to prevent any attempt of illegal push in,” he assured.”Authorities are scanning the complications in passports, visas and other documents of the people, who are trying to cross border,” he said, adding, that not more than a 100 people have been pushed in.
Our Jhenaidah district correspondent adds: There has been a sudden increase in trespassing into Bangladesh from India through the Maheshpur border in the district, with many people infiltrating or trying to enter the country every day. The BGB members detained 203 people, including 75 women and 64 children over the past 10 days (from November 13 to 23) from the area and sent them to jail, lodging lawsuits against them.
Officials of BGB’s 58 Khalishpur battalion in Maheshpur upazila said the infiltration through Jaluli, Khosalpur, Palianpur and Matila border areas has increased.
Lieutenant Colonel Kmalrul Hasan, BGB’s 58 Khalishpur battalion commander, told The New Nation on Tuesday, “A total of 260 Bangladeshi nationals, including women and children, backed in the country through 40 BOPs under Moheshpur and Jibon Nagar frontier areas in November.”
All returned men are really Bangladeshi nationals who were arrested by BGB men, he said.
“Most of the detained told them that they were forced to leave the country coming under various types of pressure, including that of the NRC. Many have left everything behind,” the BGB commander said.
Providing addresses to the BGB, the detained claimed that they once lived in Bangladesh. But the BGB men could not immediately verify the addresses, he added.
“They informed the headquarters about the matter. It’s impossible to confirm their actual address immediately. Another question is, where would they stay after getting bail from the court. We’ve informed the matter to the authorities,” according to him.
Mohespur police did not find any non-Bangladeshi among the returned men, said a police official of Mohespur Police Station seeking anonymous.
The exclusion of over 1.9 million people from a recently published list of citizens in the Indian State of Assam following years of scrutiny has triggered fears of their deportation to Bangladesh.
