In view of ongoing unrest in Bangladesh, the Border Security Force (BSF) has stepped up its vigil along the border and maintained close coordination with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at various levels, officials said on Thursday.

Bangladesh recently witnessed waves of deadly violence and clashes during the quota reform protests claiming the lives of over 170 people and injuring over a thousand.

Media reports quoting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the recent agitation centred around quota reform was not a normal movement at all, rather, at one stage it turned into almost a terrorist-like attack.

A BSF spokesman said that to maintain close coordination with Bangladesh border guarding forces, during July, in addition to the Inspector General BSF-Region Commander BGB level conference, four Commandant level flag meetings and 150 Company Commander/Border Out Post (BOP) level meetings with BGB were held.

“The border areas which are vulnerable are being dominated by BSF and BGB jointly by carrying out special coordinated patrols and more than 100 such patrols have been carried out in the month of July. This has reinforced the mutual trust between the two border guarding forces and has greatly enhanced the synergy,” the spokesman told the media.

He said that this was visible in the recent safe return of students from Bangladesh through the Tripura border with BSF was instrumental in facilitating the safe return of more than 900 students so far.

According to the spokesman, the BSF has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to prevent trans-border crime and illegal infiltration.

Surveillance has been stepped up and state of the art Hand Held Thermal Imagers and Drones have been inducted, he said.

BSF’s Tripura frontier Inspector General Patel Piyush Purushottam Das has directed all field commanders to step up coordination with all law enforcing agencies and other sister agencies for sharing of intelligence and carrying out joint operations both on border and hinterland against illegal infiltrators and trans-border smugglers.

These agencies include Tripura Police, Tripura State Rifles (TSR), Government Railway Police (GRP), Railway Protection Force (RPF), Customs, Revenue Intelligence, and Forest Department.

BSF has adopted proactive measures to curb trans-border crime. Joint operations with sister agencies are being carried out in the hinterland and mobile check posts are being established with Tripura police and TSR at transit points including railway stations, bus stands, and inter-state check posts.

Maintaining a non-lethal strategy, BSF troops have foiled multiple attempts of trans-border smuggling/infiltration.

The spokesman said that in July, 56 cases of firing from non-lethal weapons took place in the border area in which more than 70 rounds were fired to prevent the trans-border criminals and infiltrators.

It has been reliably learnt that six trans-border criminals have sustained injuries due to the firing, he said.

During July, the BSF seized contraband and drugs worth Rs 4 crore and arrested 77 illegal migrants, including 71 Bangladeshi nationals and six Rohingyas.

Over the last two-and-a-half months, more than 155 Bangladeshi nationals and 32 Rohingyas were arrested by the GRP, BSF, and Tripura Police from the Agartala railway station and various other places in Tripura after they illegally entered India.

The RPF of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has also separately intensified its drive to detain illegal foreign nationals, mostly Bangladeshis, and in June and July apprehended 88 illegal migrants while they were travelling illegally on the train in the jurisdiction of the NFR.

Four Indian northeastern states of Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) share a 1,880-km border with Bangladesh.