india

Updated: Dec 18, 2019 03:12 IST

Fifty nine nationals of Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and the US were caught trying to enter India through the Indo-Nepal border so far in 2019, a 100% jump from last year, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) director-general Kumar Rajesh Chandra said on Tuesday.

The increase in movement of such individuals, including terrorists, suppliers of fake currency notes and other smugglers, termed ‘third-party nationals’ by the SSB, is linked to the Border Security Force’s (BSF’s) strict action in the Indo-Pakistan border, due to which these elements were now trying to use the Nepal border as their route, Chandra added. In 2018, 28 such persons were apprehended by the SSB and handed over to the police. Some of the apprehended persons were from the US as well.

The term ’third-party national’ is used for persons who take a visa for Nepal and then try to enter India via both countries’ borders illegally. The BSF has, since August 5, when India abrogated Article 370 that gave some special status to J&K, increased its presence on the western border. It even conducted a special operation code, ‘Sudarshan’, to fortify its defences and plug gaps along the Pakistan border. Similarly, the BSF is keeping a tight vigil on the Indo-Bangladesh border as well.

During the annual press conference of the force, which guards the Nepal and Bhutan borders, Chandra said these people were “a mix of both inadvertent crossers and suspects”.

“The feedback (from sister security agencies) received in these cases is that “most of the cases were in progress...they were mainly people who came here with some “ulterior motives”, he added.

In the case of two US nationals, Chandra said they entered India inadvertently.

In order to fortify security measures along the Nepal border, the BSF has undertaken a “survey and a vulnerability and gap analysis of each inch” of this front and subsequently deployed its troops to plug gaps and check illegal crossings into India. The force is taking the help of satellite imagery and an enabled software of ADRIN (Advanced Data Processing Research Institute), under the Department of Space.

Chandra said the 2017 ‘pilot project’ of deploying ‘laser fences’ at two locations along the Nepal and Bhutan borders was work in progress, aimed at helping them in their ‘operational activity’.