Latest news with #BorderGuardsBangladesh
Scroll.in
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Assam won't file cases against ‘illegal infiltrators', will ‘push them back' at border: CM Himanta
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the state government will no longer file legal cases against 'illegal infiltrators' but will instead push them back at the border, The Assam Tribune reported. 'Infiltration is a big issue,' The Telegraph quoted the Bharatiya Janata Party leader as telling reporters after a state Cabinet meeting. 'We have now decided that we will not go through the legal process.' Sarma said that the approach earlier was to arrest such persons and bring them under the Indian legal system. They would be detained, produced before a court and held in jails, he added. 'We have now decided we will not bring them inside the country,' the BJP leader said. 'We will push them back. Pushing them back is a new phenomenon.' Calling such pushback a 'new innovation', Sarma added: 'That is why you are hearing about more numbers. Otherwise, the influx remains the same – about 4,000 to 5,000 people enter every year – but with pushbacks, the numbers will drop.' India shares a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh. The BJP leader's statement comes days after Bangladesh's border force detained at least 123 persons whom it alleged India had pushed into the country without documents on Wednesday. Among those detained were Rohingyas and Bengali-speaking persons. They were in the custody of the Border Guard Bangladesh and their identities were being verified, The Daily Star had 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. 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.' On Saturday, Sarma claimed that such 'pushback is a daily affair because we have created a system where we convince the BGB [Border Guards Bangladesh] that these people are about to enter.' The chief minister said that this was an ' operation ' by the Union government involving foreign nationals from across the country, in which Assam was a stakeholder too, The Indian Express reported Inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam, including Rohingyas, were among identified foreigners recently 'pushed back' into Bangladesh, Sarma added. The detention centre, in Goalpara, became operational in January 2023. It is the largest detention centre in India. As of January this year, it had held 270 inmates. These inmates include bonafide foreign nationals sentenced and convicted for violations of the Foreigners Act, the Citizenship Act and the Passports Act and awaiting deportation. It also includes declared 'foreigners' by foreigners tribunals in Assam. The foreigners tribunals in the state are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. 'Now the only people in Matia are declared foreigners, in whose cases litigation is pending,' The Indian Express quoted Sarma as saying. 'Except them, everyone from the camp has gone back to Bangladesh.' He added: 'Rohingyas have also gone back, along with declared foreigners with no appeal pending or those who had no case and were being kept there. Matia is almost free now with 30-40 people left.' In February, Scroll tracked down relatives of seven of the 63 persons who were declared foreigners and have challenged the order of the foreigners' tribunals in various constitutional courts, including in the Supreme Court. All of them contested the Assam government's claim that they were from Bangladesh.
Scroll.in
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
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.
NDTV
03-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Bangladesh U-Turn After Retired Military Officer's "Occupy Northeast" Call
Provocative comments continue to pour in from Bangladesh. Weeks after Muhammad Yunus' "chicken's neck" remark drew a sharp response from the Northeast's leaders, a retired Bangladesh officer has made a similar comment on the Indian region, referring to the soaring tensions between India and Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack. Major General ALM Fazlur Rahman (retd), who once headed the Bangladesh Rifles (now known as Border Guards Bangladesh), has called on his government to occupy India's northeastern region if Delhi goes to war with Islamabad. A senior Bangladesh official, however, trashed it as a remark made by the retired officer in his personal capacity. Shafiqul Alam, press adviser to Mr Yunus - the chief adviser to the Bangladesh government, said his comments did not reflect the government's views. There has been no reaction yet from the Indian government. At least 26 people were killed in the Pahalgam attack on April 22, souring relations with Pakistan, which is known for harbouring terrorism that targets India, especially Jammu and Kashmir. While both nations had taken diplomatic measures, several Pakistani leaders have made provocative comments calling for war. Major General Rahman's remarks amid the ongoing India-Pakistan tensions reinforce his image as an anti-India voice in the neighbouring country. The retired military officer is currently entrusted with a probe into the 2009 Pilkhana massacre in which 74 people, including military officers, were killed during a mutiny at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles. In this capacity, his position is equivalent to an appellate division judge of Bangladesh's Supreme Court. "If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh should occupy all northeastern states," he had written on Facebook in Bengali. Bringing China to play, he had said, "I think Bangladesh should talk to China about a joint military decision regarding this." Bangladesh's foreign ministry was quick to distance the government from his remark. "The comments do not reflect the position or policies of the government of Bangladesh, and as such, the government neither endorses nor supports such rhetoric in any form or manner," the ministry said in a statement. Despite such clarifications, provocative statements from senior officials appointed by Muhammad Yunus have been regular since the Pahalgam attacks. Asif Nazrul, the law adviser to the interim government, had made an objectionable and irresponsible statement on the Pahalgam massacre. Citing "misrepresentation", he had later deleted his Facebook post. He recently met a terrorist, Harun Izhar, with known Lashkar-e-Taiba links in his office, setting off sharp reactions questioning Bangladesh's policy on terrorism. Nazrul later clarified that he only met Hefazat-e-Islam Leaders and claimed they are not associated with any terrorist organisation. Major General Rahman's remark is also being seen as Muhammad Yunus' views on his government's ties with China. Weeks ago, Yunus had referred to India's northeast region as landlocked and invited China to expand in the region by propagating Bangladesh as "Guardian of the Ocean". Muhammad Yunus' position as Chief Adviser is equivalent to that of Prime Minister in the interim setup in Bangladesh, where no election has been held since the August collapse of the Hasina government. India had sharply reacted to his statement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering a stern message during his one-on-one meeting with Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok earlier this year. PM Modi had suggested that Dhaka avoid "rhetoric that vitiates the environment".
