No one except Bangladeshis to be let in

No one except Bangladeshis would be allowed to enter the country, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said about recent “trespassing” of people from India.

“We’ll consider if we can confirm their identities,” he said while replying to journalists’ queries at his office in the secretariat, reports     UNB.

There is no reason to panic over the news of people being pushed into Bangladesh from India, said the minister, adding that they were still unsure of the nationalities of the “trespassers”.

“Although they tried to enter, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel didn’t let them in.”

Last month, BGB detained 329 people on charges of “trespassing” into Bangladesh from India, BGB officials told The Daily Star, adding that they were sent to jail.

The “trespassers” claimed to be Bangladeshis, but failed to provide any evidence. They said to have fled from India fearing police harassment and detention there.

Secretary of the foreign ministry Shahidul Haque last week said Dhaka was observing the situation.

Meanwhile, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a Kolkata-based civil rights group, has claimed that 59 people were “pushed back to Bangladesh in the most inhuman way,” violating the 2015 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.

On December 2, The Hindu reported that the Karnataka police handed over the “Bengali-speaking alleged foreigners” to Indian Railway Police in Kolkata who sent the detainees to a temporary shelter in Howrah.

However, Toufique Hasan, deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh in Kolkata, said he had no “official knowledge” about the matter, the report said.

A senior government official of the West Bengal said, “Push back from India to Bangladesh is a regular, albeit legally unclear, feature of returning alleged Bangladeshis to their country through the Bengal border”.

APDR said the West Bengal government encouraged the push back at the late hours of night.

The rights group raised question about how the detainees were identified as “all Bangladeshis” without any legal procedure. It also blamed the Bangladesh High Commission for its “studied silence”.

Asked, minister Asaduzzaman said when the visas of Bangladeshis visiting India expire, the country send them back.

He also said such push-in by India is not a provocative act.

If the number was hundreds or thousands, it would have been a matter of discussion, he added.

“India hasn’t officially sent any letter in this regard. We’re ready to receive those who are trying to come back if they’re Bangladeshis. Else, we won’t let them in.”