While the flow of people seeking to cross over into Bangladesh continued at Hakimpur border outpost in North 24 Parganas Wednesday, the “pushback” will not be easy. Sources said the Bangladesh Border Guards has raised objections to people coming in.
Parallelly, the round-up of suspected Bangladeshis by West Bengal authorities is continuing, with 143 now in detention centres set up over the past three days. While the first two centres were set up in Murshidabad and Malda, another has come up at Tetulia in North 24 Parganas. The centres hold 24, 9 and 110 people, respectively, officials said.
The Tetulia detention centre has been set up in a structure that was earlier a part of the Trinamool Congress’s ‘Pather Sathi’ scheme, aimed at providing food and shelter to travellers at nominal cost in government buildings.
With the Bangladesh Border Guards raising objections to letting the people – who claim to have documents showing them as Bangladeshi – into the country, those arriving at the Hakimpur outpost have for now been taken to a nearby BSF camp. Fahim Malida, one of the four youths who told The Indian Express Tuesday that they had given up mason jobs in Kerala to head back to Bangladesh due to fear of government action, said over the phone that he did not know the exact location of the BSF camp to which he had been taken.
Malida added: “We are being taken care of. We have been given food and water. But we have no idea when they will allow us across the border into Bangladesh.”
On the Bangladesh Border Guards response, a source in the BSF said: “There are objections from their side. But we will carry on our actions as per directions. We are giving all the humanitarian help like food and water to those gathered near the outpost to return to Bangladesh.”
In November last year, during the Special Intensive Revision in Bengal, hundreds were said to have crossed back to Bangladesh through the Hakimpur checkpost, which is what has led people to flock here this time too.
In an order dated May 23, the state government asked all district magistrates to set up ‘holding centres’ for illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya in all districts of the state.