NEW DELHI, Jan 7: India will launch a drive this year to deport more than 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants considered to pose a “security threat”, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at an internal security meeting of state police chiefs, senior state bureaucrats and federal security officials who agreed to conduct the drive between April and June. It will also target about 11,500 illegal Pakistanis.

“The rough estimates indicate that there are over 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants residing in the country of whom above 10 million are in Assam and West Bengal alone,” it added.

The meeting agreed “that the states would launch a special drive to detect and deport such foreign nationals during the period April-June 2003”.—Reuters