8 August: Approximately 500 Bangladeshis, primarily Hindus, attempted to enter India through the unfenced border in the Jalpaiguri area on Wednesday, but were prevented by the BSF.
Situation for Bangladeshi Hindus worsening
This is the first attempt by Bangladeshis to enter India over the unsecured border in Bengal following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Dhaka.
The inhabitants of Bangladesh assembled close to the zero point on Wednesday morning with the intention of crossing into India. The town of Jalpaiguri is about 40 kilometers away from the zero point.
We are unable to pay to remain at our locations given the current circumstances. We arrived at border villages in the Panchagarh district to enter India after many restless nights. We don’t know where to go when the BSF stopped us, said resident Suresh Adhikari from Bangladesh.
Four villages in the Jalpaiguri Sadar block—Naotor-Debottar, Paranigram, Boroshoshi, and Kajaldighi—were reported to be under “adverse possession.”
This is due to the fact that these villages were shown on maps of what was then East Pakistan and later Bangladesh in 1947, even though they were still part of India. The villages were officially designated on the Indian map and deleted from the Bangladesh map upon the signing of the land boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh in 2015 according to The Telegraph’s article.
Later, boundary pillars were built to divide the two countries, and they jointly carried out a land survey to demarcate their respective borders.
“But in these villages, border barriers have not yet been installed. Today, attempts were made by Bangladeshis to enter India through the open border.
Around 2,000 Bangladeshis, primarily Hindus, gathered in the Bangladeshi areas near the four Indian villages, according to sources.
On Wednesday morning, BSF personnel arrived and requested them to return after a portion of them had reached the zero mark. The Bangladeshis, however, demanded that they be given accommodation in India.
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