Kathmandu: India’s Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has requested Nepal to stop the entry of Pakistani and Chinese nationals into India through the Nepal-India border points.
SSB Director General Dr. Sujoy Lal Thaosen, who is on a five-day visit to Nepal, made this request during his formal meeting with Raju Aryal, Inspector General of the Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal, according to the Nepali media reports.
The concerns were raised during the sixth Nepal-India meeting on border security, management, and coordination, which started on Tuesday, and concluded on Thursday evening in Kathmandu.
The citizens of Pakistan and China have been entering India after engaging in illegal activities in the Nepal-India border areas, said one report citing highly-placed officials of the APF, who attended the meeting. SSB Director General Thaosen was quoted as saying in the meeting that the Armed Police Force should play a role to prevent them from entering India.
However, the APF said in a statement that both sides have agreed to strengthen border security cooperation, curb cross-border criminal activities and also agreed to share the relevant information and communications between the two entities.
In the Nepal-India border security, management and coordination meeting, Director General Thaosen proposed that Nepal should stop the entry of third-country citizens into India and their illegal activities. In response, APF Inspector General Aryal said that there was no anti-India activity on the Nepali soil and that people from third countries have not entered India through the Nepal-India border.
“But the Indian side did not seem to agree with Nepal’s assurance and said that as the citizens of third countries were seen entering India from Nepal, they insisted that it should be stopped anyway,” said the highly-placed APF official.
According to the report, the Indian side complained that citizens of China and Pakistan enter India through the porous Nepal-India border to carry out illegal activities.
Inspector General Aryal said that there were many complaints that so far citizens of third countries involved in suspicious activities have not entered India from Nepal, but they have come to Nepal after committing crimes in India.
“Indian security personnel have arrested a Pakistani, who entered from the Bhittamod area a few months ago. In the meeting, the Indian side presented this as an example”, said a source present in the meeting.
In the meeting, Nepal’s security officials made a proposal to control the illegal arms and drugs trade in Nepal from the Indian side. Similarly, Inspector General Aryal also discussed the issue of narcotics entering Nepal from India, details of small arms brought from India seized by the APF in the past, criminals hiding in Nepal after committing crimes in India, and looting Nepali people in the border areas.
According to the predetermined agenda, an agreement has been reached to set up help desks on both sides of the international border and make arrangements for safe movement.
Likewise, immediately after the meeting, the APF headquarters issued a circular to the Border Outposts (BOPs) set up along the border with India and instructed them to operate the help desks. There are 220 BOPs of the APF along the Nepal-India border. Similarly, India has stationed SSB units at more than 530 places along the Nepal-India border.
–IANS
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