Monday, May 5, 2008

Bangladeshi Illegal Migrants Pose Security Threat: Indian Parliamentary Panel

NEW DELHI: Days after India asked Bangladesh to keep tabs on illegal migrants as the influx has created a lot of problems on this side, a parliamentary panel has endorsed New Delhi's concern, saying that the "large presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants poses a grave threat to the internal security".

In its report submitted to Parliament on Wednesday, the Standing Committee on Home Affairs also took note of reports about the reach of such migrants who not only procured ration cards, driving licences and voter identity cards but also PAN cards to hide their nationality.

Though the panel did not go into details of the exact role of such immigrants in posing a security threat, it gave credence to Indian agencies' finding which indicted a number of Bangladeshis for their direct/indirect role in providing logistics to terror outfits like HuJI and Ulfa in the northeastern region as well as in states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The committee, headed by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, also took note of the large circulation of counterfeit currency along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Similar concerns were earlier raised by BSF officials when they met their Bangladeshi counterparts during a conference on border coordination here last week.

Besides raising the issue of illegal immigrants, BSF officials also told their BDR counterparts about the presence of criminals who were indulging in the circulation of fake Indian currency notes through the porous border.

The parliamentary panel report also pointed out how the porous border was the main reason behind the "influx" of illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

About the measures taken by the government to prevent illegal immigration, the report said that the home ministry had taken various measures like construction of border fencing, flood-lighting and roads to enable more effective patrolling.

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