The BSF Meghalaya frontier on Saturday has urged local residents along the Indo-Bangladesh border to be on guard to prevent illegal intrusion through the international borders.
The appeal came in the wake of apprehensions that illegal Bangladeshis may cross over to India taking advantage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
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Inspector General BSF Meghalaya frontier, Kuldeep Saini told media that the BGB has inputs that some persons have instead returned to Bangladesh from India.
On Thursday, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Director General Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam disclosed that a total of 445 Bangladeshi nationals returned from India in the last two months following the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the Indian government.
Islam has said that about 1,000 people were arrested in 2019 for illegal border crossings from India to Bangladesh, and 445 of them returned home in November and December.
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Saini said that the BSF has also not received any report of minorities in Bangladesh being persecuted.
Stating that the BSF will never allow people from both sides of the countries to cross the border illegally, Saini said it is also the duty of not only the BSF personnel to be vigilant, but the local people also have to be vigilant against illegal intruders.
The BSF IG said that a meeting with headmen of Meghalaya’s border villages was being called to discuss about the issue of illegal intrusion.
Meghalaya shares a 444 km long border with Bangladesh.