Kolkata: The Border Security Force (BSF) today (Nov 23, 2004) said that nearly 6,000 Bangladeshis, who had illegally crossed over to India, were caught from different States including West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi between January and October this year.

''These Bangladeshi infiltrators who have spread out to different States were nabbed and handed over to the BSF South Bengal area,'' Additional DIG, BSF, South Bengal A K Agrawala told newsmen in Kolkata.

Apart from West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi, Bangladeshi infiltrators were also arrested from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

Last year over 9,000 Bangladeshi nationals were caught, he said adding that apart from South Bengal, some more Bangladeshi infiltrators were handed over to the North Bengal area of the BSF.

The BSF DIG presented two Bangladeshis who were arrested from Maharashtra. The two identified as Sajeda Bibi and Amjad Ali admitted that they were residents of Bangladesh and had illegally entered the country.

Accusing Bangladesh authorities including BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) of turning a blind eye to infiltration from its soil, Aggrawal said that BDR kept on denying it at every meeting with BSF though thousands of Bangladeshi infiltrators were caught every year.

The Bangladesh authorities also refused to take back their own citizens. ''Whenever the BSF approaches BDR to take back their people, their stock reply is that they will verify and return which they never do,'' the BSF DIG said.

Refuting reports in Bangladesh media about the BSF reinforcements on the West Bengal's border with Bangladesh, Agrawal said on the contrary two BSF battalions were taken out from the South Bengal Frontier and deployed in Manipur. Currently 17 BSF battalions were manning in the South Bengal frontier.

''Such reports are false, baseless and concocted,'' he said.

The matter, he said, would be taken up strongly with the Bangladesh Government.

To a question on reinforcement by the BDR, Aggrawal said, "We have noticed that BDR personnel are digging trenches in two or three places. But we know their capabilities.''

To another question, he said that unlike BDR, no red alert has been sounded by the BSF along the Indo-Bangla border.

He said that a BSF-BDR flag meeting is likely to be held tomorrow (Nov 24, 2004) at Hilly in North Bengal.