Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has detained 96 Indian nationals at the Bangladesh border in the last eight months from February to September this year on charges of illegal trespassing.
Similarly, 344 Bangladeshi nationals were detained while trying to enter neighbouring India illegally. Legal action has been taken against them after their arrest.
Lt Colonel Faizur Rahman, the director of the force (operations), disclosed this information at a press conference at the BGB headquarters in the capital's Pilkhana on Wednesday.
The arrest of the trespassers has made it possible to curb crimes at the borders, the BGB official said.
Lt Colonel Faizur Rahman said the BGB had conducted 500,000 raids in the border areas till September and seized smuggled goods and drugs worth Tk372.95 crore.
Among these, 6,758,061 yaba tablets, 300,851 bottles of Phensedyl, foreign liquor, beer, marijuana, heroin, 37kg of gold, 22 pistols, a revolver, 45 guns, 1,097 rounds of ammunition, 4 IDs, 600gms of gunpowder were seized. A total of 2,063 people involved in drug trafficking and other smuggling were arrested.
Regarding the activities of the BGB, he said that the BGB has fulfilled its sacred duty of guarding 4,427km of the border despite the ongoing crisis situation due to Covid-19. During this time, under the “Alokito Border” program, relief has been distributed among 102,000 people of 26 districts, including the provision of vans and portable tea stalls.
Till now no BGB member has died due to Covid-19, with the infection number reported to be below 60.
In the last eight months, the BGB has completed its work of strengthening the border security system by setting up its own helicopter service, floating VOP, smart digital surveillance and tactical border response system, and changing the inscription of Pakistan to Bangladesh on the pillars of the India-Bangladesh border.
Incidents at the border
Police claimed that they do not cause any gunfights after the killing of Major (retd) Sinha Mohammad Rashed in Cox's Bazar.
When asked if BGB has also steered away from gunfights, Colonel Faizur Rahman said the BGB does not kill anyone in a gunfight, no law enforcement does it. Everyone's target is to capture the culprit.
Many times criminals carry out attacks by opening fire, and it is only then that a gunfight may break out with law enforcement forces shooting in self defense.
Regarding the killing of a BSF official at the Indian border, he said: “The BSF director general has spoken to the BGB headquarters about this. Since then, there have been no more killings on the Indian border.”
Regarding accusing a fourth-grader of smuggling buffaloes in Sylhet, Colonel Faizur Rahman said BGB has apologized for the incident.
“There can be unprecedented mistakes on our part, and there is scope of rectification. We are conducting routine work and investigation into the matter.”
Myanmar is increasing their forces on the border in Myanmar's Rakhine state, sometimes moving into Bangladesh, when asked about this he said: “Our forces are also deployed on the Myanmar border and are on high alert.
“There are also coastguards, including the BGB, after Myanmar claimed St Martin's Island as their own.”
He also said that various activities have been taken up in Teknaf, including establishing barbed wire borders and deploying helicopters and speedboats to increase security from Naf river to St Martin’s Island.