9 Garo B’deshis land up in India to sell vegetables

SHILLONG: Several Garos from Bangladesh, who came to India for selling vegetables landed up in BSF custody recently and they were handed over to BGB men.
This exposes lack of marketing facilities as there are only four border haats in Meghalaya – Bangladesh border.
The BSF, in a statement on Friday said after receiving inputs, special operation was launched by Border Security Force deployed at Kaithakona, South West Khasi Hills besides conducting frisking and checking of vehicular movement along the border.
“The alertness and swift actions during the operations culminated in the apprehension of one male and eight female Bangladeshi nationals on February 25 while they were on the way to the weekly market at Khanjoy under South West Khasi Hills”, the BSF said.
All the apprehended Bangladeshi nationals, who are aged 30-50 years, are residents of Kaithakona under Sunamganj district of Bangladesh.
The BSF seized huge quantity of vegetables along with other personal belongings from their possession. Kaithakona is very close to the International border and due to the non-existence of border fence at many places, at times Bangladeshi nationals illegally enter into Indian Territory taking advantage of thick vegetation, the BSF said.
The villagers admitted that they had illegally crossed the border to visit Khanjoy weekly market.
They were handed over to BGB along with all their belongings after getting assurance from BGB to take proper legal action against them as per the law of the land for illegally crossing the border, the BSF added.