Infiltration bids from Nepal: Shah

NEWDELHI:Amid widespread protests against Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday elements who did not want peace in the country were using its open borders, especially with Nepal, to enter the country and create trouble here.

Addressing the troops on the Raising Day of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards India’s borders with Nepal and Bhutan, Shah said 54 infiltrators, including two Pakistanis, have been caught on the border in the past year.

The number of persons trying to enter India via Nepal has doubled this year, SSB director general Kumar Rajesh Chandra had said a couple of days ago.

Shah’s remarks are significant as Pakistan-based agencies and terror groups have often tried to fuel protests in India by infusing criminal elements.

Sporadic incidents of violence are being reported from different parts of the country as students and political parties have been protesting against the recently amended Act which allows members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to get Indian citizenship.

Shah said India enjoys cordial relations with Nepal and Bhutan and SSB has ensured that people from these nations are treated with respect. “But, as travelling across the globe has become easier, elements from those countries who do not want peace in India have been using the Nepal border to infiltrate the country,” he said. He added that the country’s 130-crore people sleep peacefully because forces like the SSB guard the borders.

Shah promised to troops that the Centre will ensure within 18 months that jawans of all forces guarding the border get to spend at least 100 days with their families. “This is a difficult job but as the government has accomplished other difficult targets, this will be done too,” he said.