Nayeb-e-Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former lawmaker Professor Mia Golam Parwar has issued the following statement on 27 November 2019 expressing deep concern as more than several hundreds of people have been pushed into the territory of Bangladesh through the Maheshpur border under Jhinaidah district in last one month.

“Phase by phase, India has pushed in some 4 hundred people including women and children into the territory of Bangladesh through the Maheshpur border under Jhinaidah district in last one month. I am expressing my deep concern in this regard. The conscious citizens of Bangladesh are deeply worried about the incidents of unjustified and continuous push-in.

Since the incumbent government of India had prepared a list of so-called illegal citizens, some ruling party leaders started giving threats of sending the excluded citizens, particularly the Muslims, into the territory of Bangladesh. The conscious citizens of India and Bangladesh and simultaneously the international communities are observing the scenarios with due concern. BGB have arrested many of the illegal Indian citizens in recent times. The BGB officials termed them as infiltrators and sent them to jail with the assistances of the local administration. The concerned BGB commander Lieutenant Colonel Kamrul Ahsan told in a interview with BBC that, “in fear of post-NRC crackdown, India is pushing these citizens into the Bangladeshi territory. Most of the detainees are Muslims. They have been detained and sent to the jail as they have no passport. The detainees also failed to show any documents to prove them as Bangladeshis. As such, BGB is considering them as infiltrators.” Whereas, Chuadanga-6 BGB director Mr. Khalekuzzaman also informed the media that, “the incidents of infiltration have been increased due to NRC complications in India. The incidents of Push-in are also being taken place through the Chuadanga border as well.”   

MaheshpurUpazila UNO Sujon Sarkar told the BBC that, “as per the request of BGB, local committees have been formed in various villages comprising UP chairmen and members to resist the incidents of push-in. Indian human rights activists also confirmed BBC that, “Indian authority is bringing illegal citizens from different parts of the country in Kolkata and subsequently pushing them into the Bangladeshi territory secretly. In the wake of protests of human rights activists, Bangladeshi police men are handing these Indian citizens over to the BSF members and became compelled to give them refugees in Bangladesh.” West Bengal’s Democratic Rights Protection Committee’s general secretary Diraj Sengupta termed these incidents of push-in as inhuman and extremely bad.”

Former Indian human rights activist Arijit Singh told BBC that, according to the foreigner’s act of 1946, if these people are being regarded as infiltrators, even though it should be proved in the court first. But instead of taking such initiatives, Indian government, police and BSF is playing a passive role. Foreign Minister of Bangladesh AK Abdul Momen told the journalists on 26 November that, he knows nothing officially about the alleged incidents of push-in. He claimed to know the information from the newspaper. He also assured to hold dialogue with his Indian counterpart about this issue.   

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for twice meanwhile. Indian Prime Minister assured to avoid the incident of push-in. However, the tensions and worries of the citizens of these two neighboring countries are not lessened.

Interestingly, Maheshpur police station’s officer-in-charge Md. Rashedul Alam told BBC that, “in their investigation they found the detainees as Bangladeshi citizens as such they are not treating them as infiltrators.” The contradictory comments of Police OC and BGB officials have created new confusion in this regard.

As the foreign minister claimed himself uninformed about these push-in incidents, who is this OC to make such comment? Is he the spokesman of the government? Why did he make this comment one month after such push-in attempts? We hope and expect that Bangladesh government should stop this hide and seek game immediately and disclose all necessary information to dismiss the latest confusion.

Finally, I am calling upon the concerned authorities of Bangladesh to hold immediate dialogue with the Indian government and also to undertake diplomatic efforts in order to bring an end to these push-in incidents.”