Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General (DG) Maj Gen Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui said India is systematically pushing hundreds of people, including Rohingyas, into various borders of Bangladesh in the name of Bangladeshi citizens, which is despicable and amounts to a violation of human rights.
The BGB DG made these remarks in response to questions from journalists after a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Law and Order at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday.
He said that they are doing this push-ins by targeting unpopulated areas on the border. For example, they have already pushed in through various areas of Panchhari in Khagrachhari and the Charanchal area of Roumari in Kurigram district where patrolling takes time.
He also said on the night of May 7 and 8, the BGB found 202 people pushed-in by India. Of these, 39 are Rohingya citizens. They went to India for various purposes starting from the last 2 to 3 years and up to the last 20 to 25 years. They also had children there. Many of those children received Indian Aadhaar cards or documents.
But the Indian police and BSF left them behind and pushed them into Bangladesh. And the process of sending these victims to their respective areas by the administration is under way, he said.
Of these, 39 Rohingyas have been found. These Rohingyas, who were registered in our camps at different times, somehow escaped there. They have been sent to the Rohingya camps through RRC and UNHCR, said DG Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui.
He further said that another alarming issue is that some Rohingyas have been found as refugees of UNHCR in India. They are registered there. They also have ID cards. We want to inform everyone through our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNHCR that this is a violation of human rights.
They should have been kept in the country where they took refuge. The BSF is denying the whole issue as usual. They are saying they don't know and they left for India on their own. They are trying to say that they returned on their own. We do not accept this, the BGB DG said.
This official said that they have held a flag meeting and submitted a protest letter. We have also contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have asked them to contact the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If they are Bangladeshis, we will accept them. It has to be through a regular process. It cannot be done in a hidden manner like this.
He also said that due to the vigilant surveillance of the BGB in the landlocked area of the border, they were unable to reach the ground this time and dumped another 78 people on an Indian ship at Mandarbari, a remote island in the direction of the Sundarban. The Coast Guard rescued those people from there. The matter of sending them to their respective areas is also under process. We are protesting this through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The BGB DG said BGB has come to know that about two to three hundred more refugees are kept on the other side in the Khagrachhari border area. The BSF was trying to push them in. They are not able to push them in as the BGB has increased patrolling and vigilance. But they are still close to that border area.
