Border Forces of Bangladesh and India are set to hold a flag meeting on Sunday (Jan 20) over the situation at the no man’s land near Brahmanbaria border, where 31 Rohingyas have been staying for the last two days.
Many of the Rohingyas, who are staying near the 2029th pillar at Bangladesh-India border since Friday night, have become ill as they are spending the nights there in the open air amid chilling cold.
Gopinathpur Union Chairman SM Mannan Jahangir said on Saturday (Jan 19) that Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has tightened security at the border to deter illegal entry to Bangladeshi soil.
According to Jahangir Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) were trying to push back the Rohingyas, which the BSF refuted in a statement on Saturday.
BSF has strongly denied claims by the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) that the former have been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory, an IANS report reads.
In the statement, the Tripura Frontier unit of BSF said that on Friday night, Border Guards Bangladesh’s Commanding Officer Lt Col Gomal Kabir informed BSF Commandant Ratnesh Kumar that they have detained 31 Rohingya Muslims along the international border with West Tripura. The BGB Commandant insisted the BSF commandant to take over those Rohingyas from the India-Bangladesh border fencing, the Indian news agency report adds.
BGB official Major Shafiq said on Saturday (Jan 19), “We think that the people at the no man’s land are Indian citizens.”
He added that a flag meeting with BSF will make things clearer.
On Sunday, 25 BGB Battalion Commander Lt Col Golam Kabir said, “People living in the no man’s land are not Bangladeshi citizens. Therefore, we cannot take them in.”
They will shortly sit in a flag meeting with their Indian counterpart, Kabir said before adding that the media will be briefed on the decision after the meeting.
