Situation along Indo-Nepal border "almost normal": SSB

Border guarding force SSB today said the tense situation along India-Nepal frontier is getting almost "normal" and rejected as "purely political" the allegations of its indulgence in precipitating the situation.
"The situation along the border is almost normal now except at Raxaul (along Bihar) where some protests are happening. All kind of allegations against us are political...On both the sides. We are not doing anything (to add to the disturbances on the border)," Sashastra Seema Bal chief B D Sharma told reporters during the forces' 52nd Raising Day here.
He said that at present, there are about 2,000 trucks and other vehicles waiting to cross the border and these figures have come down in the last few days when there were over 4,500 vehicles stranded.

The DG said India wants to have "good relations" with Nepal as he said the recent incident where an SSB patrol was briefly detained by Nepalese border guards was an "aberration."
"It was a bad incident and an abberation. I think it was not done. There were some mistakes on part of our men. We have ordered an inquiry as we have the highest respect for the sovereignty of Nepal. I have passed instructions to my men that they should not go to the other side in any case without the approval of the Nepalese Armed Police," he said.
Sharma said sometimes "human error" takes place in these areas as the 1,751-km Indo-Nepal border is not clearly demarcated.

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Sharma said SSB is undertaking more and more
"intelligence-based" operations in the border areas with Nepal and Bhutan as these areas are porous and it was not possible to frisk each and everyone crossing these frontiers.
"It is very difficult to work on these two borders given the conditions like being open border and difficult terrain but we are evolving a comprehensive border management plan in this direction.
"We have framed some new standard operating procedures and deployed plainclothes interaction teams of our troops on these frontiers to ease procedures and extend more help to the border population and others," he said.

The Director General said post the devastating earthquake in Nepal early this year, it was reported that one or two jailed and dreaded criminals may have been able to cross the Indo-Nepal border without being detected.
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Earlier, SSB Inspector General (Operations) Deepak Kumar said a total of 11 incidents of trucks with Indian number plates being burnt inside Nepalese territory have been reported to them.
"Some Madhesi leaders had earlier said that they will burn Indian vehicles and drivers and hence the truckers were worried to ply there," he said.
DG Sharma added the Union Home Ministry is considering according the martyr status and increasing the compensation to those paramilitary personnel killed in the line of duty.

He said that steps are being taken to enhance the mobile and other telephone communication coverage in border areas where SSB troops are deployed along the border with Bhutan and Nepal.