DHAKA: Border Security Force (BSF) will deploy women constables by mid February along the 856 km long Indo-Bangla border area to stop smuggling by the women from other side of the border.

BSF DIG BS Rawat said, "A contingent of 27 women constables have already arrived here two weeks back and are undergoing three weeks familiarisation training, and after completion of the training, they would be deployed along the border.”

He said they might now be operating from the battalion headquarters as infrastructures, like quarters were not built in the Border Outposts (BOPs).

He also said: "Earlier it was difficult to frisk women smugglers in the border because the border was manned by men only. Women are the main carrier of smuggling goods and women armed forces were extremely in need to resist them.”

A long patch of land of India was ceded to Bangladesh adhering to the Indira-Mujib Pact signed in 1974 and this lies on the other side of the fencing (inside Bangladesh).

There are gates which are opened in the morning and closed at the dusk of the day.

He further said, "When the women smugglers move across the fencing on the plea of going to their lands on other side of the fencing, it becomes extremely difficult to check them.”

Essential commodities, drugs and arms are smuggled through the border and women are also trafficked through the border.

Source: firstpost.com
BDST: 0938 HRS, FEB 11, 2014