Siliguri, Feb 01: The BSF today said it has sufficient documents to prove that the 213 persons who were pushed inside Indian territory by Bangladesh Rifles yesterday were Bangladeshi citizens. Deputy commandant, North Bengal Frontier of BSF, Satish Kumar told a news agency that 11,000 Bangladeshi Taka, cash memo of a Dhaka garments shop and an electricity bill of a premise in Dhaka were found from the possession of the intruders.
The intruders also disclosed during interrogation that they had valid documents to prove their citizenship and would be able to produce them if they were allowed to go back to Bangladesh, Kumar said. Altogether 213 Bangladeshis, including 65 women and 80 children, were forced by the BDR to cross the border and enter India under the cover of thick fog yesterday morning.
The Bangladeshis, most of them Snakecharmers, spent the night under the open sky and were provided food by the local gram Panchayat, six yards from the 'Zero Line' inside India, Kumar said.


BDR and local villagers had picked up the Bangladeshis at gunpoint from Lalmunirhat district of Bangladesh where they had gone to perform and then forced them to cross the border into India, Kumar said.


Meanwhile, BSF and BDR reinforcements continued to be ranged along the border at Satgachi outpost in Coochbehar district of West Bengal, Kumar said.


Officiating IG, BSF, North Bengal Frontier, K C Sharma is visiting the border outpost today to take stock of the situation.


Bureau Report