NEW DELHI: The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), during the Director General-level talks with BSF here that concluded Thursday, raised the alleged pushback of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants into its side of the border, complaining that the legal and diplomatic protocols were not being followed. However the BSF drew BGB’s attention to the nearly 3,000 formal requests by India for repatriation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and asked Dhaka to verify their nationality and ensure their early repatriation.At the 57th DG-level interaction, the BGB delegation led by DG Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui claimed that those pushed back persons included Myanmar nationals and even Indian nationals.As per Indian agencies, Rohingyas have illegally entered India using Bangladesh as a convenient transit point. While BGB tried to link Rohingyas’ infiltration into India to humanitarian causes, both BGB and BSF agreed to strengthen their border security mechanisms, enhance joint patrolling, intensify vigilance along the border, and conduct public awareness drives against the illegal border crossing so that incidents of infiltration, killings and attacks could be curbed.
