Date:11/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/11/stories/2003051100851000.htm

National

Rise in Bangladeshis' bid in J&K to cross over to Pak.

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU MAY 10. There has been an increase in the illegal flow of Bangladesh nationals into the State during the last two months despite a strict vigil being maintained to curb their attempt to cross over to Pakistan.

As fencing with flood lighting has been completed on a 70-km stretch on the international border, the Bangladeshis are now taking new routes to cross over to the other side. The Army personnel apprehended 17 Bangladeshis in Akhnoor sector near the Line of Control. The trend has alarmed security officials.

Talking to The Hindu here, the Inspector-General of BSF, Dilip Trividi, said the reason for theBangladeshis to come here was economic as even children and women were trying to cross over to the other side."

It is a great risk to their lives due to tense border relations between India and Pakistan though steps are being take to ensure no civilian is a causality, he said.

The reasons for these Bangladeshis taking this route are that they want to go to prosperous cities of Pakistan such as Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sialkot and other major towns in its Punjab province.

As the border in Punjab (India) is totally fenced they are taking the Jammu frontier route which is closer to these cities. None of them are arrested but after preliminary investigations are sent back to Bangladesh.

According to a senior police officer, at present it is impossible to stop their movement. Therefore, what we are concentrating on is to catch the touts responsible for luring them to take this route. Recently, the BSF Director-General, Ajay Raj Sharma, had said that the influx of the Bangladeshis would come down as discussions were on with their counterparts in Dhaka.