Senior officials of the Border Security Force posted in north Bengal on Thursday underscored the presence of female personnel in the force and frisking of women on the frontier was carried out only by them.

“As of now, 757 female guards are posted along the Bangladesh border in north Bengal. They are efficiently guarding the border round-the-clock. Also, frisking of

women is carried out by the female personnel,” said Ravi Gandhi, inspector general of the north Bengal frontier of the BSF.

He was talking to newspersons at the frontier headquarters in Kadamtala, on the outskirts of Siliguri.

Sources in the BSF said another 934 women personnel were undergoing training at the subsidiary training centre of the force at Salugara in Siliguri.

Gandhi has said the paramilitary force has zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment.

“We are a disciplined force and have a zero tolerance policy for any sexual harassment act by our personnel. The BSF Act is very powerful on the issue and also, local police have powers under CrPC in this regard,” the IG added.

On November 16, Trinamul Congress MLA of Dinhata, Udayan Guha, had alleged that BSF personnel behaved indecently with women in the name of checking.

In the current year, 125 infiltrators and 133 smugglers have been apprehended in areas under the frontier so far and contraband items, including snake venom, narcotic, cough syrus and cattle worth Rs 1.91 crore were seized, sources said.

In Calcutta, BJP MLAs, led by Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of opposition in the Assembly, visited the south Bengal frontier headquarters of the BSF at Newtown on Thursday.

They greeted the BSF personnel with flowers and sweets and thanked them for guarding the international border.

Additional reporting by Arkamoy Datta Majumdar in Calcutta