The Daily Star, 4 February 2003

16 push-in attempts in a week

Staff Correspondent

India made 16 abortive attempts to push at least 2,500 of its Bangla-speaking nationals into Bangladesh along eight frontier districts in a week until Sunday, Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury told the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday.

The push-in attempts were made through different points of Jhenidah, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Jessore, Lalmonirhat, Meherpur, Panchagarh and Kurigram districts between January 27 and February 2.

The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) thwarted all the attempts, while the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) had to take some Indians back from the border, the home minister said. In one case, he added, the BDR pushed four Indians back after BSF had pushed them in.

Some Indian nationals have been gathered in seven border points in Meherpur and Lalmonirhat apparently to be pushed into the Bangladesh territory.

In two such attempts, the home minister said, the BSF opened fire and the BDR retaliated in one case.

"The BDR has been kept on the highest alert and its vigilance along the border areas has been strengthened," the home minister said in a statement issued in the wake of heightened tension on the Bangladesh-India border.

He said India has created an 'inhuman' and grave situation on the no-man's land by making repeated attempts to push its nationals into Bangladesh, which is 'unfortunate'.

"The push-in attempts are not conducive to the improvement of the friendly relations between Bangladesh and India, and the practice is against the international norms."

The home minister was optimistic that New Delhi would work towards improving the neighbourly relations in a positive and constructive manner while referring to Dhaka's request to New Delhi to stop push-in attempts.