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Following Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha’s instructions BSF intensified its operation against touts and trans-border criminals in order to clamp down on the illegal cross border movements of Bangladeshi nationals, Rohingya refugees et al and smuggling of contraband items using the Tripura border.
IG BSF Patel Piyush Purushottam Das while addressing the media , stated that the manpower had been beefed up in the sensitive border outposts and a special operations had been launched to crack down on the network of touts and smugglers in the bordering areas. He stated that BSF had a zero tolerance policy against all such activities and field commander had been briefed to launch intelligence based operations to nab the touts.
It may be mentioned the only two days ago Chief Minister Dr Saha held a high level meeting with BSF, Police and other related forces and agencies to discuss the border situation especially in the wake of unprecedented increase in the illegal cross border movements of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals using Tripura as a corridor.
The Chief Minister did not hide his displeasure at the way Tripura became a hot spot for the touts belonging to both the countries to carry out human trafficking with impunity.
The BSF IG said in his briefing that physical domination had been augmented with state of the art surveillance technology which included AI enabled cameras and facial recognition tools. Gaps in border fencing were being plugged using improvised methods. Additional teams are being deployed in depth areas and special focus is being given to joint operations with State police and sister agencies the results are already visible on ground and in the current calendar year Seizure of contraband worth Rs 29 Crores has been made and 198 Bangladeshi nationals and 12 Rohingyas were apprehended. A huge haul of narcotics and psychotropic drugs amounting to Rs. 32 Crores had also been effected.
The IG further said that in the recently concluded IG BSF- Regional Commander BGB talks at Shillong from July 1 to 4, a dossier containing list of Bangladeshi touts and criminals had been handed over to the BGB. The Bangladeshi border guards had assured the Indian counterparts that action against the listed touts would be soon be taken as per the law of land. Both the border guarding forces further agreed to identify vulnerable patches along the border and enhance the special coordinated patrols which was done jointly. A decision was also arrived at to share the telephone numbers at field commander level to enable sharing of real time information. The IG opined that this multi-dimensional approach would ensure a safe and secure border in the state.
