Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday underscored the strategic importance of the Siliguri corridor and said the slimmest part of the Indian sub-continent that connects the entire Northeast with the rest of the country was safe in the hands of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

“The Siliguri corridor is important as it connects the Northeast to other parts of the country. The presence of the SSB in this region bolsters our confidence and we can say the corridor is safe,” said Shaha, who was at the headquarters of the SSB’s Siliguri frontier on the 61st Raising Day.

The SSB’s Siliguri frontier is headquartered at Ranidanga, on the outskirts of the city. The SSB is under the Union home ministry.

Perched between Nepal and Bangladesh in the north and south, respectively, the corridor has a width of around 24km. The corridor, also called Chicken’s Neck, is less than 200km from the China border.

Shah’s assertion on the safety of the Siliguri corridor comes at a time when a section in Bangladesh has been threatening to snap the Chicken’s Neck and take control of the Northeast.

The fact that some key members of the interim regime in Dhaka also felt the same way tumbled out recently when Muhammad Yunus’s adviser wrote in a Facebook post that a “truncated, contained, ghettoized” Bangladesh would never be able to achieve true freedom. The post not only contained a veiled threat to annex India but also showed a map of Bangladesh that claimed Indian territory.

Mahfuj Alam, whom Yunus had introduced as the mastermind of the “revolution” that brought about Sheikh Hasina’s fall, later deleted the post.

Amid sharp reactions to the post, on both sides of the border, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs, on Friday said India had conveyed the protest against Alam’s post to the Bangladesh interim government.

“We have registered our strong protest on this issue with the Bangladesh side. We understand that the post being referred to has reportedly been taken down,” Jaiswal said during the weekly media briefing of the ministry.

“We would like to remind all concerned to be mindful of their public comments,” he said.“While India has repeatedly signalled interest in fostering relations with the people and the interim government of Bangladesh, such comments underline the need for responsibility in public articulation,”
he added.

In his address at the SSB programme, Shah did not say anything about the situation in Bangladesh, but his stress on the safety of the Siliguri corridor was significant, said an observer.

“It was clear that the home minister was stressing that the Indian forces were capable of safeguarding the Siliguri corridor and any attempts to create trouble would be dealt with strongly,” he said.

The Union home minister also appreciated the role of the SSB that guards India’s frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan.

“Guarding fenced borders is different… but SSB guards unfenced borders and yet, its personnel have managed to stop human trafficking, smuggling of narcotics, firearms, and fake currency, and have thwarted anti-Indian elements from getting into the country through these borders,” Shah added.

A former army officer said since August 5, when Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh, all central and state agencies had been on alert across north Bengal and the Northeast.

During the past four months, the Indian agencies foiled several infiltration attempts and made arrests.

“The security agencies have intensified surveillance in the Siliguri corridor to prevent any nefarious attempt at the Indo-Bangla border. But there are parts that are unfenced and the home minister must have been briefed on that,” said a source.