Tripura militants have no camps, but hideouts in B'desh: BSF DIG

BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Tripura Frontier, J.B. Sangwan on Friday said militants from Tripura are not able to run any camp on the other side of the border, though few "small hideouts do exist in the foreign territory".

"At present, there are no camps, where there is a living area with ongoing training of militants (in Bangladesh), but still there exist between 15 to 17 hideouts of the militants in small groups between five to ten," said Sangwan in a press conference in Salbagan BSF frontier headquarters.

"Most of the camps exist opposite to Dhalai district (of Tripura) in the tough northern areas of the CHT (Chittagong Hill Track) and taking advantage of no presence of habitation or the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) there are staying there. Sometime they cross over to India in order to recruit new cadres," he added.

The BSF official viewed that India has prioritise fast completion of the barbed-wire fencing and for that the Indian border guards are in constant touch to amicable resolve the disputes and raise fencing at the zero points where necessary with its counterparts consent.

"Efforts are on to get permission from the BGB in certain patches to raise the fencing close to the IB (international border). In some areas of border, with water bodies and rivers, we are trying to get floating borders fence, but the eastern side is very difficult areas, but money has been sanctioned," said Sangwan.

Besides this, another hurdle in the work of completion of border fencing is the protest for the section of the population who are demanding rehabilitation as will be displaced or cut off from the Indian territory if the fence as per the Indira-Mujibur 1971 agreement and as per which the fence has to be constructed 150 yards inside Indian territory from the zero line that demarcates the two nations.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has recently approved Rs 44 billion projects for the 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

The approval has come even as fencing work along the border between the two countries remains stalled due to delays in land acquisition, pending wildlife clearance, and resolution of objections by locals.

The newly sanctioned projects include 200-km border fencing and the construction of a 400-km road, among other initiatives.

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Tripura is surrounded from three sides by Bangladesh with 857-km border, of which more than 90 percent has already been fenced except few small patches and the hilly eastern part.