BSF deployment moved to zero line along Bangladesh border in Murshidabad

BSF shifts deployment to zero line along Bangladesh border in Murshidabad, benefiting farmers and enhancing border security.

The Border Security Force has shifted deployment of its personnel to the zero line along the border with Bangladesh in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. The border is a long stretch of char lands along river Padma, and the forces had so far been deployed a few hundred metres from the border inside the Indian territory. Farmers who have their farmlands in the chars until now had to register with the BSF to access and cultivate the lands.

“There are three battalions in Murshidabad, where there is a problem of char lands. Everywhere, we have deployed forces along the zero line from Farakka to Kakmarichar,” DIG Anil Kumar Sinha of BSF Baharampur range told journalists.

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The official said that the deployment has been made from three battalions – Battalion 73, Battalion 146 and Battalion 149 of the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF.

While sources in the security establishment said that the turmoil in Bangladesh may have prompted the deployment, BSF officials said it was a long pending demand of farmers of the area.

Chars are pieces of lands formed of sand and silt that appear and disappear depending on the flow of river. The chars along the Bangladesh border are created by river Padma. They don’t have power and water supply, and that was why the forces had been stationed inside the Indian territory.

BSF officials said that the work for survey and erecting fences along the international border will start soon.