New Delhi: Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) has arrested 32 more people, including women and children, for entering the country from India, according to the Dhaka-based paper, Daily Star. All the arrested have identified themselves as Bangladesh citizens, even though officials claim to have no documents on them proving as much.

On November 22, Daily Star had reported that the BGB had rounded up 329 people in the last three weeks for trespassing into Bangladesh, claiming to be the country’s citizens. The report quoting BGB and police officials had said that those arrested “were mostly from Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka. Some of them had shifted to the city from Assam.”

Also read: 329 People Held at Border After Trying to Enter Bangladesh From India, Says Report

The November 22 report said that these 329 people too had claimed to be Bangladeshi citizens but had been held because they couldn’t show any documentary proof to back their claim.

“They also claimed they fled from India fearing harassment and detention by the police there.”

Daily Star, in its November 25 story from Benapole quoted Subedar Mozammel Hossain, commander of 21 Daulatpur BGB camp, as having said that 32 more persons were arrested on November 24. While 17 of them were men, 13 were women and two, minors.

They allegedly entered Bangladesh through the Daulatpur border in Jashor’s Benapole area. Subedar Hossain said those arrested claimed to belong to Bagerhat and Munshiganj areas of Bangladesh. He said the BGB raided a mango orchard on getting a tip-off about “a large group of people” intruding into Bangladesh and taking shelter in it. “BGB found the intruders there, arrested them and later handed them over to Benapole Port police station”.

As in the earlier news report, the November 25 report too quoted some of those arrested as having said that they “used to live in Bengaluru” and work as “housekeepers” and “maids”.

“Police in India first raided our house, detained us and then handed us over to BSF members. In the end, BSF pushed us into Bangladesh through the border at midnight,” one Alamgir Khan, 35, was quoted as having said.