SHILLONG: The Border Security Force (BSF) handed over a 13-year-old Bangladeshi boy, who was apprehended while illegally crossing the international border in Meghalaya, to the BGB in a goodwill gesture, officials said on Sunday.
A woman smuggler and the boy were apprehended on September 24 while illegally crossing the India-Bangladesh border through the unfenced area at Nongkhen in Meghalaya for petty smuggling, a BSF statement said.
Both the woman and the boy hail from Sylhet district of Bangladesh.
The woman revealed that she brought the minor boy with her as labour for carrying items meant for smuggling into India, the BSF said.
The boy was handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) during a flag meeting on Saturday in presence of police representatives as a goodwill gesture and the apprehended Bangladeshi woman was handed over to police station Baghmara for further legal action, the statement said.
BSF Meghalaya Frontier Inspector General Inderjit Singh Rana said the goodwill gesture was adopted by the BSF as a humanitarian approach in such cases where the victims are minors.
"Both the border guarding forces have developed an understanding on such subjects and these issues are amicably resolved to strengthen the existing relationship and to enhance mutual trust between both the neighbouring countries," he said.