India on Thursday continued to push people into Bangladesh for the second consecutive day while the Border Guard Bangladesh had beefed up security in vulnerable areas along Indian borders.
On Thursday, the BGB detained 25 people -- 15 of them in Moulvibazar and 10 in Dinajpur -- while a tense situation was prevailing in the border areas amid India-Pakistan tensions and the former鈥檚 drone attacks on targets in the latter.
抖阴精品 correspondent in Moulvibazar quoting local people reported that 15 people were detained at Dholai border under Kamalganj upazila in the district for illegal intrusion.
Of them, nine were male,聽 three female and three children.
鈥榃e detained 15 people and handed them over to police,鈥� said BGB 48 Battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Md Zakaria.
BGB members quoting detainees said that they had been living in India鈥檚 Assam for the past five years, Indian police demolished their homes and transported them by helicopter to the Manik Bhandar area of Tripura where they were handed over to the BSF to push them into Bangladesh.
They said that they were from Narail and Chattogram districts of Bangladesh.
Quoting detainees, BGB members further said that the BSF had opened Dholai border with more than 300 people in their custody and had pushed some of them into Bangladesh.
A total of 103 people have illegally crossed into Bangladesh from India through various border points in Moulvibazar, said local people.
Lieutenant Colonel Mehedi Hasan, commanding officer of BGB-52 Battalion, said that additional personnel and checkpoints have been set up to strengthen border security and prevent illegal crossings.
According to a BGB-42 Battalion press release, 10 people were pushed into Bangladesh, who had gone to India through illegal channels seven years ago.
The BGB has intensified security measures along a 70-kilometre stretch of Jashore border in Sharsha upazila amid the growing tensions between India and Pakistan, 抖阴精品 correspondent in Jashore reported quoting BGB-49 Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Saifullah Siddiqui.
In Sylhet on Thursday morning, a BGB-BSF joint survey was foiled in the morning amid protests from local Bangladeshis in Goainghat upazila in Sylhet, 抖阴精品 Staff Correspondent in the district reported.
Local people said that tensions flared among villagers after the BGB and the BSF were preparing to carry out a survey of a place between the international pillars numbering 1278 and 1279 in Khasi Haor area along the Naljuri border in Goainghat upazila.
Stating that they have been using the place as a playground for a long time, which was scheduled to be surveyed on Thursday, the villagers alleged that the BSF was trying to grab the land.
In the face of strong protests from the villagers, the joint survey team was forced to leave the place without completing the survey, the locals said.
BGB-48 Battalion commanding officer Md Nazmul Haque told 抖阴精品 that they brought the situation under control later after convincing the locals by informing them the actual reason for the survey.
He went on to say that India owns a part of the Khasi Haor as per the Enclaves Exchange Agreement signed between Bangladesh and India in 2015 and discussions were also held between the officials of the border guards of both the countries in this regard.
Meanwhile, at least 123 people were forced to enter Bangladesh from the Indian side through different border points in Khagrachari and Kurigram on Wednesday.
At least 79 people were pushed into Bangladesh from the Indian side by the BSF through two border points of Panchari and Matiranga in the hill district on Wednesday, 抖阴精品 correspondent in Khagrachari reported.
Local administration officials said that 66 of them were suspected to be residents of Gujarat.
No further incidents of people being pushed into Bangladesh through those points from India have been reported since Wednesday, United News of Bangladesh reported.
BGB director for operations, Lieutenant Colonel SM Shafiqur Rahman, could not be reached for comments over phone.
Tensions between arch rivals India and Pakistan intensified on Wednesday with missile attacks from India on Pakistan territories killing at least 26 people and Pakistan vowing to retaliate, according to international media reports.
Bangladesh and India share over 4,000-kilometre international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world, comprising 262km with the Indian state of Assam, 856km with Tripura, 318km with Mizoram, 443km with Meghalaya, and 2,217km with West Bengal.
