NEW DELHI: TWO days after Bangladesh asked the country’s telecom operators to block their services along its 4,000 km-long border with India citing ‘security reasons’, Dhaka reversed the decision on Wednesday. Jahurul Haque, chairperson of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, confirmed the latest decision to reverse the restrictions, media repors said.
The authorities had sent an email to all the mobile operators asking them to restore the networks, the reports said. But they did not give any reason for the decision to restore the service. On Sunday, the BTRC ordered telecom service providers like Grameenphone, Teletalk, Robi and Banglalink that network coverage in border areas should be suspended until further notice “for the sake of the country’s security in the current circumstances”.
News reports had said that around 2,000 base transceiver stations were closed, which would have affected around 10 million users in 32 districts that share border with India and Myanmar. Mobile operators of the country said they would take a day to fully reinstate the connections as some of the towers were in very remote areas, the reports said.
The directive to block mobile services had come after India’s Parliament passed CAA, causing concerns in Dhaka about a possible influx of migrants back into Bangladesh. Bangladesh foreign minister has requested India to provide a list of its nationals living illegally in India, “if any”, to be repatriated.
With Agency inputs