B'desh nationals returning after NRC in Assam : BSF

The Border Security Force on Friday said that some Bangladesh nationals who had entered India are crossing over to their country following the NRC exercise in Assam. An improving economic scenario in Bangladesh was also a reason for the return of its nationals from India, BSF Inspector General of Meghalaya frontier, Kuldeep Saini said.

There are fears among people in certain northeastern states that Bangladesh nationals could enter India following the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which assures citizenship to non-Muslims of that country. The input that we are getting is the people from Bangladesh who had illegally crossed over to India are returning to Bangladesh and were apprehended there, he said.

There are inputs that such movements have taken place in the past few months. We have also seen Bangladesh media reports quoting the director-general of Border Guards Bangladesh(BGB) on these movements, Saini said. Elaborating, the BSF IG said that it was possible that Bangladeshis living in other parts of India are returning through Assam and Tripura due to their ethnic similarity with the people of the two states.

No official report has, however, been received from BGB on the issue so far and the reports "may not be 100 per cent true", he said. Saini said that the economy of Bangladesh is growing at a good pace so the infiltration of people of that country has gone down.

BSF Meghalaya frontier guards the longest stretch of Indo-Bangla border of 443 km. There are 125 border outposts in this stretch, which runs through diverse terrain. About 100 km of the border remains unfenced. Saini said BSF has not received any instruction from the union home ministry or the external affairs ministry in respect of the CAA.

There has also been no change in the general rule of guarding the border following the coming into being of the Act, he added.