Dhaka: The issue of deporting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants threatened to snowball into a diplomatic row between India and Bangladesh on January 26, with Dhaka summoning the Indian deputy high commissioner to Dhaka and lodging a formal complaint of pushing "Indian Muslims" into its territory – a charge India rejected outrightly.

Deputy high commissioner Dilip Sinha was summoned by the government to the Foreign Office and handed over an "aid memoir" protesting "the push in from across the border", High Commission sources said.

Sinha, on his part, made it clear to the Bangladesh authorities that the question of pushing out Indian nationals did not arise, the sources said, adding he reiterated New Delhi's concern about illegal Bangladeshis in India and asked Dhaka to "acknowledge the gravity of the situation and address it in a sincere and pragmatic manner".

Bangladesh government has alleged that attempts were being made to push in Bengali speaking Indian Muslims along its Western border. Several Bangladeshi newspapers reported that two such attempts by Border Security Force (BSF) to push nearly 200 people were "thwarted" by BDR, with support from local people along Western Jessore and Jhenidah borders.

The row comes immediately after a meeting of the joint working group (JWG) of the two countries, during which officials agreed on effective maintenance of peace and security along the common boundary.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat coalition government reacted harshly to recent concerns by senior Indian leaders about large-scale Bangladeshi infiltration and about operation of Indian insurgent camps from Bangladeshi territory.

Relations between the two neighbours have taken a steady downturn in recent months with most programs of bilateral co-operation coming to a standstill even though there is no official admission of this.

PTI