India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has continued its repeated attempts to illegally push people into Bangladesh at the Gangni border in Meherpur. For a second straight day, the BSF tried to force five more people into Bangladesh at the same border area. But the attempt failed in the face of a firm stance by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and immediate resistance from border residents.
Early on Friday (26 June), in two separate incidents, the BSF tried to push five people, including a woman, into Bangladesh through the Dhala and Sohratola borders of Gangni upazila. On learning of it, BGB members, with the help of locals, quickly took position at the scene and strongly protested the push-in. At around 7am, the BSF was forced to take all five back into India.
According to local and border sources, an attempt was made to bring three people, including a woman, to the zero line near sub-pillar 7S of main pillar 135 on the international border, from the direction of Rangpur village in Murtia police station of India’s Nadia district, and push them into Bangladesh. When locals informed the BGB, it quickly reached the scene and mounted resistance. After keeping the three at the border’s zero line for a long time, the BSF took them back into the Indian side.
At the same time, two more people were gathered in the Bijoynagar border area of Murtia police station and an attempt was made to send them into Bangladesh through the area of sub-pillar 5S of international main pillar 144 at the Sohratola border. There too, in the face of a firm stance by the BGB and locals, the BSF was finally forced to take them back.
Of the five people in the push-in attempt that day, four were men and one a woman.
On this, 47 BGB Kathuli company commander Osiqur Rahman said: “The BGB is on the highest alert. With the cooperation of local people, the BSF’s push-in attempt was not allowed to succeed. Surveillance and patrols at the border have been further strengthened.”
The previous day, in the early hours of Thursday, the BSF had tried to push seven people, including a woman, into Bangladesh through the same Sohratola border. That day too, the Indian border force was forced to take them back in the face of BGB resistance. So within just 24 hours, attempts to push a total of 12 people into Bangladesh at the same border area failed in two rounds.
With this, the BSF has made at least four push-in attempts at the Gangni border in June: 6 people through the Tentulbaria border on 6 June, 4 through the Khalpara border of Buripota union on 19 June, 7 through the Sohratola border on 25 June and, most recently, 5 more through the Dhala and Sohratola borders on 26 June. In every case, the BSF was forced to take them back in the face of a firm BGB stance and resistance from border residents.
Although the BSF’s repeated push-in attempts at the Gangni border in Meherpur have created fresh concern along the border, every such attempt has so far failed thanks to strict BGB surveillance and the active participation of border residents.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report