The Border Security Force (BSF) is struggling to block the entry of terrified Bangladeshis trying to flee their country, hoping to find shelter in India. Senior BSF officers said that the attempts were being seen from North Bengal to South, particularly in areas where the border is still unfenced. West Bengal shares a 2217-km long border with Bangladesh.
BSF personnel were forced to fire warning shots and form a human barrier at an unfenced section of the border as hundreds of Bangladeshis, mostly politicians and workers of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party, attempted to enter Bengal, fearing for their safety amid targeted violence in their nation.
A former Awami League MP from Kushtia II, Kamarul Arefin, was apprehended while trying to cross over to India through the Benapole-Petrapole border in North 24-Parganas district along with his wife and two daughters. While the ex-MP and his kin had passports, they did not have visas. They appealed to be let into India, fearing for their lives in Bangladesh. While BSF did not comment on the issue, BGB detained him after they were sent back on Wednesday.
BSF sources said North Bengal, in particular, witnessed a massive gathering of Bangladeshis along the international border on Wednesday: ordinary villagers, people from the minority Hindu community, Awami League supporters, all trying to cross over.
Panic-stricken Bangladeshis are massing on the border due to the continuing unrest in Bangladesh since Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and flight to India on Monday.
At one such border outpost, BSF had to fire a warning round in the air, faced with a gathering of 200-odd villagers, who were trying to cross into Indian territory.
Amit Kumar Tyagi, BSF DIG (North Bengal Frontier), confirmed the warning shot, saying, “At the Mukesh border post in the Kishanganj-North Dinajpur area, we had a gathering of over 200 villagers. We had to resort to one round of blank firing at 1.45 pm on Wednesday. The villagers are still standing between 200 m and 500 m from the international border.” He said these villagers were residents of Thakurgaon district in Bangladesh. Other BSF sources said senior officers were at the site, trying to convince the villagers. The local BGB has been alerted and their help sought.
“The villagers are still there, between 200m and 500m from the international border,” Tyagi said. Senior BSF officers are coordinating with BGB units to manage the situation.
At the Dharadhara Para area of the India-Bangladesh border in Jalpaiguri, over 600 Bangladeshis tried to enter India. There’s no fence here, so the BSF jawans are forming a human wall themselves. The Bangladeshis have gathered at the ‘zero point’, facing the BSF shield. Similar reports have come from Nagar Berubari (Satkura Bazar) in Jalpaiguri, along the international border in Dharadhara Para.
“They are standing barely a few metres from the international border. We have stopped them at zero point. We are taking local help to control the situation,” said a senior BSF official. BSF officials from the Radhabari sector have been asked to prevent all illegal entry in this area.
Sources said that residents of five villages in Bangladesh’s Panchagarh district – Lahiripara, Chirakuti, Bania Para, Balgram and Sundar Para – are seeking refuge in India.
At another border outpost, this one near Jalpaiguri, 600 Bangladeshis, mostly Awami League workers, are refusing to leave the no-man’s land, demanding passage to India, They are refusing to step back into their own country despite the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) calling them back.
On Wednesday, two more AL functionaries, who tried to cross over from the Darshana land port (on the Darshana-Gede border), were stopped by BGB. Later in the day, BGB issued a press note claiming that a total of three persons who tried to cross the border near Darshana and Benapole, were stopped and detained. Indians who had gone to Bangladesh have also started returning to India.
Thakurnagar resident Beauty Das, who had gone to Narail, Bangladesh, to meet her sister hours before Hasina resigned, managed to come out of her sister’s house on Wednesday morning, covering her face with a dupatta, draped like a hijab. “I had no idea of the political turmoil there. When I reached Narail, I saw people trying to break statues of Mujibur Rahman. When I asked what was happening, the auto driver asked me to stay silent. I could sense trouble but did not know what was waiting for me,” she said.
Over the next two days, she saw multiple attempts to destroy a temple near her sister’s house and attacks on neighbours. “We could not sleep for the next two nights and stayed huddled in a room, switching off the lights. On Wednesday, I gathered courage and wrapped a dupatta around my face, hid my passport in a bag and managed to reach the Benapole border,” Das said.
Saraswati Mandal from Bongaon, who visited her daughter in Jessore, shuddered as she recollected witnessing targeted violence against Awami League workers and Hindus. “They looted their homes and set houses on fire,” she said after crossing the Petrapole border on Thursday