Shillong Jan 3: The BSF Meghalaya frontier has urged local residents along the Indo-Bangladesh border to be watchful to prevent illegal intrusion through the international borders.

The appeal came in the wake of apprehensions that illegal Bangladeshis may cross over to India taking advantage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

When asked about the threat, Inspector General BSF Meghalaya frontier, Kuldeep Saini told reporters the Bangladeshi media has reported the statement of the BGB that some persons have instead returned to Bangladesh from India.

“We have not received any report of people from Bangladesh trying to enter India via the porous border of Meghalaya,” Saini said.

On Thursday, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Director General Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam disclosed that a total of 445 Bangladeshi nationals returned from India in the last two months following the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the Indian government.

Islam has said that about 1,000 people were arrested in 2019 for illegal border crossings from India to Bangladesh, and 445 of them returned home in November and December.

Saini said that the BSF has also not received any report of minorities in Bangladesh being persecuted.

Stating that the BSF will never allow people from both sides of the countries to cross the border illegally, Saini said it is also the duty of not only the BSF personnel to be vigilant, but the local people also have to be vigilant against illegal intruders.

The BSF IG said that a meeting with headmen/nokma of Meghalaya’s border villages was being called to discuss about the issue of illegal intrusion. Meghalaya shares a 444km long border with Bangladesh.