A girl from Panchagarh district of Bangladesh has walked alone for around 11km to reach the India border and a youth has swum across a stream that flows through both countries to enter India.

The desperate entry to India by two persons belonging to the Hindu community in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours prompted BJP leaders in Bengal to highlight the plight of minorities in the neighbouring nation under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.

Sources said both the 17-year-old girl and the 21-year-old youth were nabbed by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and later handed over to police.

A police source said the girl, a school student, is a resident of a village in Panchagarh district. Her father is a medical representative while her mother is a homemaker.

"They are devotees of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) and were repeatedly threatened during the past few days. Some people even told them that they would abduct and kill their daughter. Out of desperation, they decided to send their daughter to India in an illegal manner, keeping in mind her safety,” said a source.

The girl was told to reach a relative's place in Belakoba, a hamlet in Jalpaiguri district.

She, however, reached the India-Bangladesh border at Fatepur in Chopra of North Dinajpur, which is around 70km from Belakoba.

After the girl crossed the porous border on Tuesday night, the BSF personnel nabbed her before handing her over to the Chopra police.

The police later called up her relative who rushed in from Belakoba.

“She left her home yesterday (Tuesday) and walked alone through agricultural fields and covered a distance of 11km. At night, she tried to get into India. We understand the situation but we wonder how the parents could send her alone,” said the relative.

On Wednesday, she was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in North Dinajpur. The board ordered that she be sent to the state-run home for minor girls.

On Wednesday, BSF troops posted at the Tekrabhita border outpost in the Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri intercepted Jiban Barman.

Barman, who is a first-year undergraduate student at Thakurgaon Government College in the Rangpur division of Bangladesh, swam across the Karatowa river which flows through Jalpaiguri district and enters Bangladesh.

“He claimed that over the past few days, he had faced threats and was told he would be implicated in false cases. That is why he fled the country,” said a source.

Later in the day, the BSF handed him over to Rajganj police. A court in Jalpaiguri sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA of Siliguri and the party's chief whip in the Assembly, said: “Hindus are facing threats and attacks and desperately trying to enter India. The interim government in Bangladesh is not taking any steps to protect Hindus and members of other minority communities.”