Despite several flag meetings between the border forces of Bangladesh and India over the 31 Rohingyas staying in no man’s land near the Brahmanbaria border, no solution is in sight yet about their fate.

For nearly three days since Friday (Jan 18), the 31 Rohingyas have been staying under the sky in chilling cold, which led to many of them becoming ill, according to locals.

Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and their Indian counterpart Border Security Force (BSF) held several flag meetings, which ended without any solution over the matter.

On Saturday (Jan 19), Gopinathpur Union Chairman SM Mannan Jahangir said that Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has tightened security at the border to deter illegal entry to Bangladeshi soil.

Reports were out since Saturday that BSF was trying to push back the Rohingyas, which the BSF refuted in a statement later on Saturday.

An IANS report said that BSF strongly denied claims by the BGB that the former have been pushing Rohingyas into Bangladeshi territory.

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 (Jan 20), 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.”

When asked on the matter Kasba Upazila Nirbahi Officer Hasina Islam said, “We have no directive on the matter. We will take steps once we get direction from the higher authority.”