January 24, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1423

DHAKA, Jan 23: The Indian Border Security Force pushed 76 “Indian Muslims,” including 27 women and 28 children, into Bangladesh through the Sharsha border in Jessore district on Wednesday.

According to press reports here, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) arrested the Indian nationals, who were pushed into Bangladesh, while travelling from the border by bus.

The deportees, later handed over to police, reportedly told Bangladesh authorities that they were brought from different parts of India, including Mumbai, where they had been living for decades. They were assembled at Goga in West Bengal and then the Indian border guards forcibly pushed them into Bangladesh on Wednesday morning.

BDR officials reportedly said the deportees speak Bangla and were born in India.

Agencies add: India said this month that 20 million Bangladeshis were in the country illegally and alleged they could pose a security threat.

India’s Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Jan 7 protested against “this silent and continuous intrusion” of Bangladeshis into India.

The home ministry, which Advani heads, said the presence of illegal Bangladeshis, most of whom are Muslim, “poses a serious threat to internal security and needs to be tackled with utmost urgency and seriousness.”

Bangladesh called the report “absurd.”

India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-kilometre porous border.

India last month said that 11,000 nationals of Pakistan and vowed they would be sought out and deported.