India has deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh after a political crisis in the neighboring country toppled the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina fled Bangladesh on Monday for India, where she spent the night. His current whereabouts have not been disclosed.
India is yet to officially address the developments, but the federal government has called opposition parties to a meeting.
India shares a 4,096 km (2,545 mi) border with Bangladesh and has close economic and cultural ties with the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Monday to review the situation. Reports say that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar may make a statement in parliament on Tuesday.
There are concerns that prolonged tensions in Bangladesh could spill over into India, which is seen as having supported Ms Hasina during her 15-year rule despite cracking down on dissent and jailing opposition leaders.
Five Indian states share a border with Bangladesh, which was formed in 1971 after a war with Pakistan. According to government data from last November, around 915.35 kilometers of the border are not closed.
From a security perspective, Ms. Hasina’s tenure was relatively peaceful for India as she cracked down on anti-India militants in her country. It also granted transit rights to secure trade routes for states bordering Bangladesh.
On Monday, senior officials from the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) visited the Bangladesh border in the eastern state of West Bengal to review “the operational preparedness and strategic deployment of the BSF in these important border areas”, it said. a spokesperson.
The BSF he said “received strict instructions from the government not to allow anyone to enter the country without valid documents.”
Rail services between India and Bangladesh were suspended “indefinitely” – they had been disrupted since mid-July, following the outbreak of violent protests in Bangladesh.
India also asked its citizens in Bangladesh to exercise “extreme caution”.
More than 4,500 Indians returned to the country in July with the help of their diplomatic missions in Bangladesh.
On Monday, following Hasina’s resignation, the northeastern state of Meghalaya imposed a nighttime curfew along its border with Bangladesh.
In West Bengal, the state that shares the longest border with Bangladesh as well as close linguistic and cultural ties, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for peace.
The movement of goods through the border land port of Petrapole has also been halted. Reports say that hundreds of Indian trucks are stuck on the Bangladesh side.
A senior diplomat told the BBC on Monday that India “doesn’t have many options at the moment”.
“We have to reinforce control at our borders. Anything else would be interpreted as interference.”
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