Border tense after Bangla guards fire

A senior BSF official in Kolkata, speaking to The Indian Express, today claimed that 591 Bangladeshi nationals have ‘‘gone back’’ to their country from various border points in the South Bengal section between January 17 and 26. The South Bengal section between January 17 and 26. The South Bengal frontier covers areas like Bongaon (Petrapole-Benapole), Gede, Murshidabad and Malda and Hilli, known to be very sensitive because of trafficking of men and material.

But the BSF official had an interesting explanation to offer. ‘‘The union parishad (local body) elections are approaching in Bangladesh and, therefore, many wanted to go back to their country. And our troops on the border only facilitated their return to Bangladesh,’’ he said, not wishing to be identified.

The Bangladesh government has alleged that this is forcible pushback that has taken place recently at at least six places on the border, mostly in West Bengal. ‘‘What else can we do when the Bangladesh Rifles refuses to accept its own nationals and brands them as ‘Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims’,’’ asked a DIG in the BSF.

Bangladeshi nationals are being intercepted at different places in the country and being prosecuted for violations under the Foreigner’s Act and then handed over to the BSF for deportation. BSF circles in Kolkata said in the past three years about 18,400 Bangladeshi infiltrators have been apprehended and pushed back.

Mehboob Hasan Saleh, first secretary in the Bangladesh deputy high commission in Kolkata, told The Indian Express that they have been keeping a ‘‘watch’’ on the developments. ‘‘The state government has not provided any information to us so far,’’ he added.

Asked if they had sought any information from the state government, Saleh repeated: ‘‘I can only say that the state government has not given any information.’’

In the past few days, the Bangladeshi media (Daily Star) has carried reports of skirmishes. According to these reports, on January 24 the BSF made an attempt to push in ‘‘over 1000 people through Jayantapur border in Sharsha upazila and Dhopakhola border in Benapole’’.

The previous day it was 600 and 200 the day before that, according to these reports.

One such attempt yesterday is said to have led to an exchange of fire at border points along Jhenidah district, 128 km west of Dhaka. But in New Delhi, the BSF had its own version of the incident.

With the Mumbai police cracking down on the underworld, 41 Bangladeshi Muslims settled there decided to cross into their own country at Palianpur last evening but the BDR opened fire, killing five of them, they said. The BDR also fired four rounds at the BSF post, sources said.

‘‘Five of them died, all inside Jhenaidah district in Bangladesh territory. Most of them retreated in face of the firing, taking shelter on the Indian side of the border,’’ said the sources.

There was no retaliatory firing from the Indian side but the BSF lodged a formal protest with their counterparts across the border. Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the matter might be taken up at the government level too.

‘‘Though the Government has been taking up the issue of illegal immigrants with the Bangladeshi government time and again, it hasn’t had any effect. But the situation is becoming serious and the issue needs to be taken up much more strongly,’’ said a senior MHA official.

The government, meanwhile, rejected as ‘‘baseless and absurd’’ the allegations by Bangladesh that India was trying to push in Bengali-speaking Muslims into their country. In fact, it asked Dhaka to recognise the gravity of the problem of illegal immigrants and cooperate with it in tackling the issue.

A Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said that the problem of illegal migrants could not be wished away and cooperation from the Bangladesh government was required to solve it in a sincere and pragmatic manner. (With Bhavna-Vij Aurora)