With security tightened along the Indo-Pak front following abrogation of Article 370 provisions, an increasing number of people with "ulterior motives" from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and China are trying to sneak into India through the open Nepal border.
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the Indo-Nepal frontier, caught 59 such persons this year, which is over a 100 per cent jump compared to 2018 when 28 people were apprehended by the border guarding force. SSB is also the Lead Intelligence Agency for the 1,751-km Nepal border.
SSB Director General (DG) Kumar Rajesh Chandra said there have been 59 such cases this year as compared to 28 in 2018 where the Central paramilitary force caught "third party nationals" on the Nepal frontier.
These apprehended third party nationals were from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and the United States. , the DG told mediapersons during the annual press conference of the Force.
Asked further about the identities of these people and their motives, the DG said they were "a mix of both inadvertent crossers and suspects".
"Whether they were terrorists or fake Indian currency note (FICN) operatives or smugglers. We have got our limitations to know that as we catch them and hand over to local police or other probe and intelligence agencies," he said, adding their numbers have definitely increased.
The feedback (from sister security agencies like Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing) that they got on these cases is that "most of the cases are in progress. But mainly people who have come were with some ulterior motives".
In the case of the two US nationals it looked to be a case of ignorance of law and they could be inadvertent crossers and similar could be the case of a Chinese group who were on a tourist sojourn along the Nepal border area.
The DG said as its "sister force BSF has enhanced vigil on the India-Pakistan border, these elements could have used the open Nepal border as an alternative route".
The Border Security Force (BSF) had conducted two special operations, code named ‘Sudarshan’, to fortify its defences and plug gaps along the Pak border after the Centre ended the special status categorisation of the former State of J&K by abrogating provisions of Article 370 on August 5 and bifurcating it into Union Territories of J&K, and Ladakh.
"I can also tell you that the attempts made of this (third party nationals) kind on this border (Indo-Nepal) have been higher this year as compared to the last year and the one previous to it (2017)," the DG said.
Chandra added that in order to fortify security measures along the Nepal border, his force has undertaken a "survey and a vulnerability and gap analysis of each and every inch" of this front and subsequently have effectively deployed its troops to plug gaps and check illegal crossings into India.
He said the force is taking the help of satellite imagery and ADRIN (Advanced Data Processing Research Institute), under the Department of Space, enabled software to patrol the border.
As part of a pilot project, the SSB has also deployed ‘laser fences’ at two points on the Indo-Nepal border to check illegal crossers, officials added.