Bangladesh detains 123 persons, including Rohingyas, trying to enter from India: Report
Bangladesh's border force on Wednesday detained at least 123 persons who were allegedly trying to enter the country from India without documents on Wednesday, reported The Daily Star.
Among those detained are Rohingyas and Bangla-speaking persons. They are in the custody of the Border Guard Bangladesh and their identities were being verified, The Daily Star quoted Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, the director general of the paramilitary force, as saying.
Border Guards Bangladesh is the paramilitary force responsible for the country's border security.
A senior Indian police officer confirmed to Scroll that persons had been detained by Bangladesh. But the officer did not confirm the number of individuals who were detained. Some of the persons were from the Matia detention centre in Assam, the officer said.
Bangladesh also lodged a strong protest against the alleged 'push-ins' with India's Border Security Force, added Siddiqui.
'Dhaka is trying to establish contact with New Delhi on the reported push-ins of people from India through the Indo-Bangladesh borders in Kurigram and Khagrachhari,' National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman was quoted as saying.
He added that if the detained persons are verified to be citizens of Bangladesh, 'we will accept them'.
'This will have to be done in a formal channel,' said Rahman. 'Pushing them in is not the way.'
This comes amid strained ties between New Delhi and Dhaka after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India in August after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been in power for 16 years.
Two days after Hasina's ouster, reports had said that the Border Security Force had stopped about 500 persons from Bangladesh from entering India through the border district of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
India shares a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.
Of the 123 persons, 44 were detained from the Roumari and Bhurungamari sub-districts of Kurigram, according to The Daily Star. Thirty-five of them are Rohingyas.
In Khagrachhari, at least 79 Bangla-speaking persons were detained.
The Kurigram district borders India's Assam and Meghalaya, and the Khagrachhari ditsrict borders Tripura.
In February, Border Security Force chief Daljit Singh Chaudhary had said that infiltration along India's border with Bangladesh had ' gone down substantially ' since the political crisis led to the change of government in Dhaka.
Chaudhary said that the Border Guards Bangladesh had assisted the Indian forces in maintaining peace along the border throughout the crisis.
In March, quoting an unidentified official in the Union home ministry, The Hindu reported that voluntary return of undocumented Bangladeshis had increased after the government began a crackdown in December.
The ministry had in December asked all states and Union Territories to identify and deport undocumented migrants, according to The Hindu.
In Bangladesh, the police in 31 border districts have been alerted to ensure that national security is not compromised amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, reported The Daily Star.
The Indian military on Wednesday carried out strikes on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Nine sites were targeted under Operation Sindoor.
The Pakistan Army retaliated by shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Twelve civilians and an Indian soldier were killed in the firing.
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