BSF busts human trafficking network, nabs one Indian, 17 Bangladeshis

South Bengal Frontier of BSF on Wednesday (July 5) busted a human trafficking network which was involved in infiltrating people into the Indian territory from Bangladesh. A total of 18 people, including 17 Bangladeshis who were trying to infiltrate and one Indian tout - were nabbed by the BSF jawans from the zero line in West Bengal's Nadia district.

As per the inputs shared by the Intelligence Branch of BSF, jawans were keeping a close watch on the Indo-Bangla border in Nadia district of West Bengal when they noticed suspicious movements around the zero line.

In the first instance, suspicious movement was noticed by the Post Commander of Border Out Post (BOP) Jhorpara during Zero Line Border Patrolling. The jawans later apprehended three persons and a child.

“After noticing suspicious movement, we challenged suspected people who were hiding themselves in a banana orchard and asked them to surrender. Instead, they tried to flee but the alert jawans chased them and apprehended four people including a child,” said a senior official of BSF South Bengal Frontier.

On preliminary questioning, the apprehended persons revealed the names of touts who were involved in assisting them to cross the International Border (IB) and infiltrate into the Indian territory. The apprehended persons also revealed that they paid a sum of Rs.12000 per person to the tout who was helping them cross over into India. “These people were to further travel to Hyderabad and the tout was supposed to help them find work there. They paid Rs.12,000 for each of them,” added the official.

In another incident, suspicious movement was noticed at the Kumari BOP in Nadia district of West Bengal and 14 people including five children were were nabbed while trying to cross into India from the Bangladesh side.

“Upon receipt of intelligence input, the Company Commander of BOP - Kumari planned a special patrol and simultaneously alerted all the Observation Posts. Troops deployed at the Observation Post, intercepted an auto on the Indo-Bangladesh Border Road carrying nine persons and four persons were walking behind the auto in a suspicious manner at around 10am on Wednesday. Immediately, they were all apprehended," said a BSF official.

“On preliminary questioning, the apprehended persons revealed the names of Indian touts assisting them. They further revealed that they paid Rs.1500 per person to the touts,” added the official.

During the search, some personal belongings, Bangladeshi Rupees and Indian Rupees were recovered from them.  “All the apprehended persons along with their belongings were handed over to PS Hanskhali after lodging FIR against the defaulters for further investigation,” the BSF senior official said.