Agartala:All the 245 Border Outposts along the 856-km-long Tripura-Bangladesh International Border have been put on maximum alert to thwart any attempt of infiltration by the terrorists or Indian insur-gents operating from the soil of the neighbouring country, a senior BSF officer said on Friday.
“We do not see strong possibilities of intrusion of Islamic terrorists like JMB and others to enter into the state. But the borders in the Feni and Moulavibazar districts of Bangladesh are still vulnerable, so we have put all the border outposts (BOPs) in alert,” IG BSF of Tripura frontier B N Sharma said. On the recent remark of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar that the insurgents were still using the soil of Bangladesh and were trying to be active before the elections of the 30 member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), Sharma admitted that there were two incidents of insurgents attack on BSF by the insurgents from Bangladesh soil. A BSF jawan and a civilian driver were killed and another person was injured on November 17 when suspected NLFT militants fired at them at Khantlang, a village bordering Chittagong Hill Tract in Bangladesh. Another BSF jawan was shot dead by the ultras of the same group at Maldapara in Dhalai district on October 23.
“We need to re-look at the border. We have augmented our forces in the border to check such incidents and an alert was sounded along the border for keeping stringent vigil so that this kind of sabotage could not take place. We are also making a plan for quick reaction after such incidents,” the IG BSF told reporters.
He said there are 32 camps of insurgents of Tripura in Chittagong Hill Tract of Bangladesh (CHT) and in Sylhet district of which 21 belonged to banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).
Sharma said, out of the 856-km-long border, Central government gave sanction for erection of barbed wire fencing in 851 km. Fencing work completed in 703 km, work is in progress in 147 km and work is yet to start in 43 km. He said most part of the border in the state was brought under the coverage of flood lighting and closed circuit cameras were fixed for better surveillance.
“Work for setting up CCTV cameras completed in 577 km and work is on in 92 km. Besides, we have also installed biometric devices for identification of the real inhabitants in the border areas which would help checking infiltration,” the IG informed. Sharma said the large patch of areas are not guarded by Border Guard Bangladesh which help easy movement of Indian insurgents in their soil and added that in the recent IG level meeting with BGB in Sylhet, they (BGB) agreed to construct some BOPs in those areas to improve surveillance. He said altogether 64 composite BOPs having all facilities would be constructed in Tripura of which 22 were already completed and 17 BOPs would be relocated for better border management. Construction of one compo-site BOP costs Rs 5-6 crore having the facilities like good barrack, toilets, dining hall and helipad.(PTI)
