Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested a total of 445 Bangladeshis for entering the country illegally from India in two months till December 31 after the Indian government published the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on September 14.
BGB Director General (DG) Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam disclosed the information at a press conference at BGB’s Pilkhana headquarters here on Thursday.
“A total of 253 cases were filed with local police stations over trespassing in two months (Nov-Dec, 2019). Primarily, we came to know that they all are Bangladeshi citizens. They had gone to India one or two years back in search of job,“ he said.
“They aren’t Indians. However, Indian citizens will enter Bangladesh illegally because of the NRC….it can’t happen. So, we aren’t concerned about it,” he added.
The BGB DG briefed reporters about the outcomes of the just-concluded DG-level border conference which was held in New Delhi last month.
He said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the NRC are India’s internal matters. “We aren’t worried about the NRC and CAA as we’ll never allow anyone to enter Bangladesh illegally. It’s our regular job not to allow illegal entry. So, there’s nothing to be worried. It’s an internal matter of India.”
The BGB chief also said there is no concern between the border forces of the two countries.
He said the total length of Bangladesh’s border is 4,427 kms. “We’ve no barbed-wire fence along this long border. But there’s a process in place to erect barbed-wire fence on the border with Myanmar.”
Shafeenul said modernisation of the border force is underway.
He also said there are 637 border outposts (BOPs) along the border and the establishment of 71 more have been approved. “We want to establish one BOP in every 5 kms to properly monitor our border.”
source: UNB
