February 1, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1423

KOLKATA, Jan 31: Security forces in eastern India have stepped up arrests of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants after the interior ministry labelled them a security threat and ordered them deported, an official said on Friday.

A Border Security Force official said 178 Bangladeshis had been arrested in West Bengal state in the last few days while attempting to cross into India illegally.

West Bengal police detained more than 160 Bangladeshis, including 35 women and 10 children, last week.

“We have increased our efforts after the Home (interior) Ministry’s directive,” the official said.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said Bangladesh’s deputy ambassador in New Delhi had been summoned to the ministry and told that Dhaka should recognise the issue as a “grave problem”.

“Bangladesh needs to recognise the gravity of the matter and address it in a pragmatic manner and in a spirit of cooperation,” spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters.

Asked about media reports which quoted Bangladeshi officials as saying that India was pushing its own citizens across the border, Sarna said: “There is no question of any Indian citizen being pushed back into Bangladesh. Any such allegation is baseless and absurd.”

The deportation drive has soured ties with Bangladesh, which denies any of its nationals are illegally staying in India.

The Indian interior ministry, headed by hardline Hindu nationalist L.K. Advani, said on Jan 7 that more than 20 million Bangladeshis were in India illegally.—Reuters