GUWAHATI: The Border Security Force (BSF) has sealed a 200-metre-long culvert after discovering it on the Assam-Bangladesh border.
A search for a kidnapped man in southern Assam’s Karimganj district had led a team of the police and the BSF to the passage which leads to the other side of the international border. It was covered under plants and shrubs.
The BSF suspects the criminals used the passage through the culvert for carrying out smuggling and other crimes.
“It’s a culvert laid out there and not a tunnel. It has been sealed (on the Indian side) following its discovery by police and BSF personnel,” a senior BSF official told this newspaper.
It was not immediately known who had laid it out. “It is a river sandbar area. We don’t know the extent of its use by criminals. We are investigating,” the BSF official added.
One Dilwar Hossain, a resident of Shilua village in Karimganj, was kidnapped on December 28 last year. After his family had lodged an FIR, the police launched an operation in search of the man and it led them to the site.
Hossain was taken to Bangladesh through the culvert. His abductors had demanded Rs 5 lakh as ransom. When his family, as advised by the police, agreed to pay the amount, the abductors engaged a local in Karimganj district to receive the money but he fell in the police net.
Later, Hossain was released by his abductors. He told the police that the miscreants often use the culvert to carry out criminal activities.
Sources said there are some “gaps” on the international border in Karimganj and the BSF is working towards filling them in.
Cattle-lifting by Bangladeshi criminals is common in Karimganj. In June last year, three men, suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals, were lynched by the villagers. They claimed the Bangladeshis had crossed over to steal cows.