File picture of Indian students, who study in Bangladesh, upon their arrival at the Akhaura check post of the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura, following protest against government job quotas in Bangladesh, July 20, 2024.
In the wake of the violent anti-quota protests rocking Bangladesh, 4,315 students, including 3,087 Indian students have entered India from Bangladesh over the last four days, the Border Security Force said on Wednesday. It has established help desks at check points along the border to assist the students, it added.
Among the students who entered India through integrated check points (ICPs) and land custom stations (LCS), 1,168 were from Nepal, 41 were from Bangladesh, 66 from Bhutan, two from Maldives, and one from Canada, the BSF said in a statement.
Security challenges
“The current law and order situation in Bangladesh due to anti-quota protests is having security challenges and implications for BSF… BSF is closely monitoring the situation across the border and troops are on high alert to deal with any untoward situation,” the statement added.
Ravi Gandhi, the Additional Director General at BSF Headquarters and Special DG of the Eastern Command at Kolkata has issued an ‘operation alert’ all along the India-Bangladesh border.
Long border
India and Bangladesh share a 4,096.7 km border, of which 77% is on land and 23% is riverine; this is the world’s fifth-longest land border, and is guarded by six frontier commands. The largest section — 2,216 km — is the border shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh. Of the 4,315 students who have entered India, more than a thousand entered through three LCPs and one ICP on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border.
The BSF statement noted that there are a lot of challenges on the Indo-Bangladesh border, such as smuggling, illegal cross-border movement, and migration from Bangladesh into India and vice-versa.
“In order to prevent illegal immigration, BSF has apprehended 983 Bangladesh nationals and 48 Rohingyas while infiltrating into Indian territory in the last six months,” the statement added.
