Fear of influx from turmoil-hit Bangladesh gripped the Northeast on Monday with Tipra Motha, a constituent of the BJP-led government in Tripura, urging Union home minister Amit Shah to check infiltration.

In neighbouring Assam, the Opposition Congress and the Assam Jatiya Parishad also expressed concern over the likely influx of people from Bangladesh through the “unsealed border”.

Infiltration from Bangladesh is a sensitive issue in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, which share borders with the neighbouring country.

The Indo-Bangla border is 4906km long, with the Bengal stretch covering 2,217km and Mizoram 318km.

On Monday, Meghalaya imposed a night curfew along the international border with Bangladesh while Assam put all three districts along the border on high alert. Cross-border trade through a land customs station has been suspended in Tripura.

Tipra Motha issued a statement saying its founder Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarman spoke to Shah amid the tension in Bangladesh and Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as the Prime Minister.

“He (Pradyot) has requested the central agencies to be more vigilant across the border, and he has been assured by the home minister that all the Indo-Bangladesh border will be protected well and no illegal influx will be allowed,” the statement said.

The Motha statement also said Pradyot has been “repeatedly saying that Sheikh Hasina is probably the only true friend that India has in the whole of Southeast Asia, and after her, the situation across the Indian border, specifically in the Northeast states like Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya might worsen with more and more influx and communal tension”.

Voicing similar concerns, the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) urged the Centre to “reassess security measures” along the Indo-Bangla border following the mass uprising in the neighbouring country leading to Hasina’sresignation.

AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and general secretary Jagdish Bhuyan flagged the need for heightened security, particularly along the border with Assam, which had
seen a six-year-long anti-foreigner movement.

The party warned that “anti-India communal organisations... in Bangladesh have a history of establishing terrorist links in Bengal and Assam”.

“Additionally, Bangladeshi citizens who might be encouraged by the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India could also move to Assam, exacerbating the situation,” the AJP said in a statement.

Assam PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah suggested extra vigil along the Bangladesh border to check illegal entry of people as well as fundamentalist and extremist forces.

“We need to be extra cautious. The state government and the Centre need to be extra cautious to check any adverse impact of the unrest in Assam, the Northeast and India,” Borah said