The Border Security Force of India pushed at least 16 more people, including 13 Rohingyas, into Bangladesh through a border point under Baralekha upazila in Moulvibazar on Tuesday morning.
The latest push-ins by the BSF took place when the 56th director general-level border conference between the Border Guard Bangladesh and India’s BSF began at the BGB’s Pilkhana headquarters in the capital Dhaka.
The three-day conference will conclude today.
The number of people, including Rohingyas and Indian nationals, pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF since May 7 has crossed 2,100.
The Indian border force has so far pushed more than 180 Rohingyas, including 50 registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in India, into Bangladesh.
BGB 52 Battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Ariful Haque Chowdhury said that the BSF pushed 13 Rohingyas, including five men, four women and four children, and three Bangladeshis, including a women and two children, into Bangladesh through a border point at Kumarshail Tea Garden under the Baralekha upazila in the morning on Tuesday.
‘The BGB personnel, however, detained them from the Kumarshail area immediately after they were pushed into the Bangladesh territory,’ the battalion officer said.
He said that the detainees told them that they had gone to India illegally through different border points several months ago for job.
‘BSF personnel picked them up recently from different parts of India and then pushed them into Bangladesh Tuesday through the Baralekha border,’ the BGB officer quoted the detainees as saying.
Stating 13 out of 16 detainees are forcibly displaced Mayanmar nationals and registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh, the BGB officer said that the detainees were handed over to Baralekha police station at about 10:30pm on Tuesday after confirming their identity.
Barlekha police station duty officer Binoy Bhushan Roy told New Age on Wednesday afternoon that the three Bangladeshis are residents of Bandarban district and their relatives were already asked to receive them from the police station.
‘Preparations are under way to send the detained Rohinyas to the Ukiah refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar,’ he said.
