Not sure about northeastern terror camps in Bangladesh: BSF

There may be some camps of northeastern militants in Bangladesh but the Border Security Force (BSF) has no specific information about them, an official has said.

"Some camps of northeastern militants might be in Bangladesh but we have no specific information about the camps or hideouts there," BSF's Tripura frontier Inspector General S.R. Ojha told the media here on Tuesday evening.

He said: "The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) is cooperating a lot. Sometimes, BSF and BGB troopers jointly conduct patrolling along the borders to check crimes, infiltration and illegal movements besides cross-border smuggling."

Ojha said of the 856-km India-Bangladesh border with Tripura, around 21 km were unfenced and work is on to fence them.

"To further tighten the vigil along the border, floodlighting would be done around 145 km border areas in Tripura," he added.

He said in view of the largescale Myanmarese Rohingya influx into Bangladesh, security along the India-Bangladesh borders had been further tightened to prevent any such infiltration into the northeastern region.

"We have further alerted our troopers posted along the borders with Bangladesh. BSF personnel intensified patrolling along the borders to prevent any influx, especially of the Rohingyas," Ojha said.

According to the intelligence officials of Tripura Police, at least 15 camps or hideouts of Tripura militants still exist in Bangladesh. These camps are mostly of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

A few years back, the BSF and intelligence agencies had said around 100 camps or hideouts of northeastern militants operated in Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet areas of Bangladesh.

India shares a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh in West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).

Large parts of these borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar are riverine, mountainous and unfenced, enabling illegal immigrants, intruders and smugglers to cross over without much of a problem.

--IANS

sc/pgh/mr