Border security tightened

> Indian guards ordered to push Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh

DHAKA: Bangladesh has tightened security along its western border with India amid concern that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees could be pushed into its territory, officials said yesterday.

Patrols have been stepped up along the frontier with India’s West Bengal state, where border guards say they have been ordered in recent weeks to steer Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Lt-Col Tariqul Hakim, an area commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said Rohingya could be seen gathering opposite the Putkhali frontier post, where just a narrow river divides the two countries.

“We have stepped up surveillance and patrols so that no Rohingya can be pushed into our territory,” Hakim said.

There are 40,000 Rohingya in India but the Indian government wants them deported, telling a top court last month they pose a security threat.

Hakim said Rohingya communities inside India could be trying to reunite with their families in southeast Bangladesh, where more than half a million Rohingya refugees have arrived since August.

An estimated 536,000 refugees have crossed since Aug 25, fleeing violence in western Myanmar described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.

An Indian border guard in West Bengal said that patrols had previously turned over all Rohingya intercepted at the frontier to local police.

“But now our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingya into Bangladesh,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“We are trying to accomplish our task with active local support”.

A Bangladesh border guard official, Abdul Hossain, said villages along the frontier were on high alert, with newly arrived refugees saying they had been encouraged by Indian guards to cross the border.

“We’ve been patrolling the border day and night to prevent their entry. Local villagers have also joined us in the patrols,” Hossain said.

Local council member Nazrul Islam said more than a dozen Rohingya who crossed at a southwestern part of the frontier Friday reported Indian guards opening a section of barbed wire to allow them to pass easily.

Bangladesh already hosts at least 800,000 Rohingya, including those who fled earlier crackdowns in Myanmar, and does not want to accept any from India.

It is trying to repatriate the Rohingya to Myanmar. – AFP

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