Indian police have arrested nearly 250 Bangladeshi Hindu migrants in the past three days for illegally crossing the border into the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
"Police are looking for the Bangladeshi infiltrators, who have reportedly taken refuge at different houses in villages of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh," West Bengal police superintendent Harisen Verma told AFP.
"So far, we have arrested nearly 250 Bangladeshi Hindus from different areas in Bongaon sub-division over the past three days."
The arrested people have been sent to a jail in Bongaon, a district town, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of Calcutta, state capital of West Bengal.
"All of them would be sent back to their country after discussing the matter with the Bangladesh government," he said.
Verma said police have stepped up their vigil in all border villages in West Bengal.
Indian officials say Bangladeshi Hindus have been pouring into India to escape attacks on the country's minority Hindu community after the Islamist-allied Bangladesh Nationalist Party government came to power in last month's general election.
Bangladeshi officials earlier downplayed Indian media accounts of the attacks and dismissed reports of a Hindu exodus as propaganda.
On November 9, however, the Bangladeshi government pledged to investigate the reported migration. A committee headed by the principal secretary to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been asked to submit a report on the situation.
Indian police said some groups were using microphones to urge Bangladeshi Hindus living across the border to cross over into West Bengal.
"Police have seized the microphones and imposed a ban on using microphones to campaign for the infiltrators," police superintendent Verma said -- AFP
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