BSF nabs Bangladeshi man being trafficked in empty rail wagon from across border

A 41-year-old Bangladeshi man, hiding inside an empty goods train, was apprehended by BSF personnel from along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal on Monday, officials said.

A 41-year-old Bangladeshi man, hiding inside an empty goods train, was apprehended by BSF personnel from along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal on Monday, officials said. They said that this seems to be a case of human trafficking as the man, who worked in a jewellery shop in Cumilla district of the neighbouring country, told BSF personnel that he was sent to this side by some touts promising to get him employment here.

He also said that he wanted to visit Ajmer Sharif dargah in Rajasthan after earning some money, officials said. The man was intercepted from an empty rail wagon that came to the Indian side at Petrapole in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal at about 1:30 pm, they said.

The man from Bangladesh has been handed over to the local police even as the BSF has asked railway authorities that they should check every wagon before the start of a journey from either side of the border in order to thwart human trafficking bids. Since June 20, BSF troops in this border area have apprehended at least six Bangladesh residents who were being trafficked to either side of the border.

PTI had reported on Sunday that the border force has sounded an alert all along the 4,096 km long India-Bangladesh front to check cross-border human trafficking instances that may witness a spurt in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the linked lockdown. The force has noticed some innovative methods to push the poor and vulnerable from across the border by luring them with job opportunities in cities like Kolkata, Guwahati, some other towns in northeast India and as far as Delhi and Mumbai.