BSF Director General KK Sharma on Friday said the West Bengal Government is “slightly friendly” to the Rohingyas moving from different parts of the country to the State and has set up camps for 70 families.
“…there has not been any large-scale influx of Rohingyas into India (from Bangladesh). Whatever Rohingyas are already there in the country, are also under pressure at some places; so they are going to West Bengal, a State which is slightly friendly with them,” Sharma said in a joint Press conference with his Bangladeshi counterpart Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam, Chief of Border Guards Bangladesh.
“They (West Bengal Government) have set up camps for Rohingyas coming from within the country and not from Bangladesh. We got it (Rohingyas presence in West Bengal) inquired and there were about 70 odd families who had come from various places within India,” Sharma further said.
The Intelligence Bureau in a report to the Union Home Ministry has said that the 70 families have been settled in North 24 Parganas district with the help of NGOs besides support from the local MLA and MP, Intelligence sources said.
The BSF had conducted an enquiry in conjunction with the IB to ascertain the presence of the Rohingyas in West Bengal.
Denying any large-scale influx of Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh into India, the BSF DG said, “We are alive to the situation. We are aware that a large number of Rohingyas are assembled there in Bangladesh and from time-to-time some small groups did try to enter India, but I am very happy to say that we did not let them succeed.”
“So, I am very happy to say the BSF has successfully contained the influx of Rohigyas and we have not allowed any intrusion so far. This has also been verified by our sister security agencies,” the BSF DG asserted.
Replying to questions on movement of Rohingyas along the Indo-Bangla frontier, BGB Chief Maj Gen Md said his Force is “very much alert” to prevent unauthorised movement of Rohingyas in their country and towards the border areas.
“There are a large number of Rohingyas along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and all the security agencies including BGB are keeping them confined to the area allocated to them. But yet, in very few cases, they are slipping out of the camps and we are finding them in some other parts of Bangladesh. Our security forces are very much alert and as we detect them, we get them back to our camps again. We are very keen on keeping them in the designated camps,” the BGB DG said.
The joint Press conference by BSF and BGB chiefs was held after conclusion of the biannual talks between the two border guarding forces. The Bangla delegation was on a six-day visit to India for the talks.
The Centre views the presence of Rohingyas as a security threat and considers them as illegal immigrants and not as refugees. The Centre is in favour of deporting them but the Supreme Court has stayed the move following petitions against the move.
There are about 40,000 refugees settled in different parts of the country including Jammu & Kashmir. The Rohingyas have been involved in terror cases including the Bodh Gaya blasts.
INSET
The first smart fence pilot project (Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System) that envisages deployment of laser fences and technology-enabled barriers to plug vulnerable gaps along India’s borders is set to be formally launched by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh later this week, the BSF DG said, adding the gadgets will be deployed along 2,400-km frontier with Pakistan and Bangladesh in the future. “The first pilot project of the CBIM system or smart fence is already in place and working in Jammu. The home minister will formally launch it on September 17... But this is a tentative date. On the eastern side in Dhubri, across the Brahmuptra, we have installed technical solutions on a stretch of 55-60 kilometers because there is no possibility of erecting a (physical) fence there,” the BSF chief added.