Agartala, Nov. 30: Militants with subversive designs on India are holed up in as many as 58 hideouts in Bangladesh. Of these, 18 camps belong to the banned All Tripura Tiger Force and National Liberation Front of Tripura.

Disclosing this at a news conference here today, BSF inspector-general J.A. Khan said a detailed list of camps was furnished at the last DG-level meeting with Bangladesh Rifles in Chittagong. “From our side, a list was furnished with all the details and they promised to look into it, but no action has been taken by Bangladesh so far to dismantle the camps,” Khan said.

“Six camps of Tripura militants are located close to our eastern border, while 12 are near the western border,” he said.

Khan said the BSF was in the process of strengthening its operational base in Tripura by setting up more border outposts and inducting sophisticated gadgets.

“We have 197 border outposts along the 856-km border, but 53 additional ones will be set up soon. Fourteen of these will come up before the next Assembly polls to plug loopholes in the border,” he said.

Immigrants deported

The BSF intercepted 349 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who sneaked into the two states in the past 11 months, adds our Shillong reporter.

In a statement issued on the eve of its 43rd raising day today, BSF deputy inspector-general V.S. Sikarwar said 223 infiltrators had been handed over to police and the remaining 126 to Bangladesh Rifles, as the offenders were guilty inadvertent crossing.

Of those handed over to police, many were deported to Bangladesh after BSF held flag meetings with its Bangladeshi counterparts, he said.

The BSF said for the last one year, the Assam-Meghalaya frontier forces had also seized smuggled contraband goods worth more than Rs 12.84 crore (Rs 12,84,09,277), including seizure of forest produce worth 72.40 Lakh, (Rs 72,40,531) narcotics items worth 77.65 Lakh (Rs 77,65,014/-) and cattle worth Rs 6.88 crore (Rs 6,88,73,300/-) from the Indo-Bangladesh border. The BSF also seized fake Indian currency notes, which were being pumped into India by the miscreants from Bangladesh. The statement further said that while dealing with insurgency in the region, the BSF troops in Assam-Meghalaya frontier had nabbed 10 militants in North Cachar Hills and Karbi Anglong Districts of Assam. A large number of arms, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the militants. The BSF also set up one Disaster Management Battalion, located at Guwahati to deal with the natural calamities