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Be it Pyrduwah in Meghalaya, Manchachar in Assam or Lankamura in triputra, recent, incidents on the Indo-Bangla border betray an aggressive stance on the part of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Senior Border Security Force (BSF) officials say that BDR is trying to prevent completiuon of fencing on the border.
BDR has dug trenches close to the border - like at Vijaypur near Krishnagar boborder and even resorted to firing to prevent fencing work, since they are from the Bangladesh army, BDR officials.
"Where fencing has been completed, illegal border crossing has become difficult. They try it mostly in places where the border is still unfenced," says Ranjit K Pachnanda, inspector general, BSF south Bengal frontier.
According to BSF officials, Bangladesh encourages, illegal cross-border immigration. More than 25,000 people were intercepted in 2003 while trying to cross the border illegally in search of employment. Many more has escaped detection and entered India.
BSF offcials suspect that Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agents and militants also cross borders along with immigrants and smugglers. In Bangladesh, there are 195 camps harbouring militants from the North East and fundamentalist organizations like Jamat-e-Islami have been growing.
The Bangladesh government also stands to gain from cattle smuggling rampant along the porous border, as it collects a tax of Taka 500 for each animal smuggled into Bangladesh. "Within three to four kilometer from the border, Bangladesh Customs officials have set up offices where they collect this tan and offer proper receipts in return." Some such receipts are in BSF's possession.
There are 41 'cattle corridors'
across the south Bengal border. In 2004, BSF had seized 71,000 cattle that
were being smuggled across the border. Estimates say that is possible to
smuggle across almost 10 times this figure. In Bangladesh, the smuggled
cattle provide a source for meat exports as well. These are often brought
from western parts of India and taken across the border.
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