Political unrest in Bangladesh has prompted the north Bengal frontier of the Border Security Force (BSF) to intensify its surveillance along the Bangladesh border and introduce mechanisms like biometric machines to prevent infiltration.
“We have installed many CCTV cameras along the border to enhance the scope of digital surveillance. Biometric machines have been introduced for people who move beyond the fences daily for farming and other purposes,” said S.K. Sharma, the inspector-general of the BSF north Bengal frontier.
The frontier guards 936km of the India-Bangladesh border covering five districts of north Bengal and some parts of Bihar.
Sources in the BSF said biometric machines were installed to prevent illegal entry of people from behind the fences. Details of Indians who cross the fence regularly were with the BSF.
Sharma, talking to the media at the frontier headquarters in Kadamtala on the outskirts of Siliguri, said: “There is a pressure of (Bangladeshi) minority communities on the India-Bangladesh border who are trying to come (in India). The BSF is professionally stopping them as per the policy of the
(Indian) government.”
According to him, after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, the BSF found that minorities of Bangladesh districts such as Dinajpur, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon, which share borders with India, tried to enter this country.