Over 6,800 infiltrators arrested in 5 years: Government

NEW DELHI: A total of 6867 people have been apprehended by the security forces while trying to infiltrate into India from Bangladesh in the last five years, with 456 such instances taking place till July this year, the government today said.

In written reply over 'number of incidents of foreign infiltration during last five years' in the Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister A K Antony said the government has planned to set up additional Border Out Posts (BOPs) to check infiltration and the highest number of 383 such posts will be commissioned along the India-Bangladesh border.

He also provided details of the infiltration attempts in Jammu and Kashmir and the number of people apprehended across the Indian borders with neighbouring countries.

"For better domination of borders and to check illegal cross-border activities, the government has planned to increase the number of Border Out Posts (BOPs) along Indo-Pakistan, Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-Nepal and lndo-Bhutan border," he said.

As per the plan, the highest number of 383 new BOPs will be constructed along the India-Bangladesh border, followed by its boundary with Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, which will get 126, 89 and 63 such posts respectively, he said.

Antony also informed the House that the government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain cross-border infiltration.

Besides round-the-clock surveillance and patrolling of the borders and establishment of observation posts, several high tech surveillance equipment have also been installed to detect infiltration attempts.