Where are they?

New Delhi, Nov. 29: Over 1.5 lakh Bangladeshis who came to India on valid visas through international check posts over the past five years are untraceable, Border Security Force director-general A. K. Mitra has said.

“Nobody knows where this huge number has disappeared. This doesn’t come under our jurisdiction. The international check posts are not in our hands,” he said at a news conference here on Tuesday, adding that it was the other agencies that had failed to check illegal migration.

Mitra said the focus of terrorist infiltration and smuggling of arms has shifted from Jammu and Kashmir to the eastern borders. Terrorists, posing as economic migrants in search of a livelihood, are using the Bangladesh corridor to enter India.

He admitted that a range of measures — fencing, establishing border outposts and increasing battalions — hasn’t solved problems on the porous India-Bangladesh border. He feared it could remain that way in future.

“We need to be on high alert because each investigation into a terrorist violence is leading to the discovery that some Bangladeshi had a hand in it,” Mitra said.

Anticipating a mass influx, especially of minorities, from Bangladesh because of the violent run-up to parliamentary polls there, the number of battalions on the border has been raised from 54 to 69. A full battalion keeps vigil in the Sunderbans and Tura, in Meghalaya’s Garo hills.

No exodus from across the frontier has been reported so far but Mitra said there have been indications that people could start flocking in as elections draw near.

“BSF troops will remain on alert for the next three to four months to stop illegal migration. Our information is that the minorities are being threatened as they are perceived as Awami League voters. There is tremendous pressure on them to vote for the Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP. This could push them into crossing over.”