No HNLC militants camp inside Bangladesh: BSF DIG

Guwahati, Nov 30: The Border Security Force (BSF) guarding India-Bangladesh border have claimed that there is no camp of the Meghalaya-based banned militant group, Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) inside Bangladesh.

The BSF’s Meghalaya Frontier DIG, D Haokip today informed about it and said a few of the cadres of HNLC used to visit Bangladesh on and off as they have relatives and supporters across the border.

He said that Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) were taking shelter in Bangladesh but stated that it was difficult to provide the exact number.
BSF Meghalaya Frontier DIG said that the inputs suggested that the IIGs were still having dens in certain areas of Bangladesh and particularly in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and few bordering areas along the Meghalaya Frontier even though the Bangladesh Government and Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) had always denied the presence of IIGs in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Haokip said that the number of seizures of cattle which are smuggled to Bangladesh has decreased drastically after the Assam Government had come up with the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021.

According to him, they have witnessed that the number of seizures had come down after the Assam Government had come up with a legislation fir its prevention.

Further, he informed that 70 per cent of the border fencing of the international border with Bangladesh in Meghalaya has been completed while 30 per cent is still incomplete due to various factors.

Haokip said that the problem of land acquisition is one of the major factors which delays the completion of the border fencing adding that the majority of stretch where the fencing is still incomplete is in East Khasi Hills and in a few patches of Jaintia Hills region.