KATHMANDU, Sept 30: India’s Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has requested Nepal to stop the entry of Pakistani and Chinese nationals into India through the Nepal-India border points.

SSB Director General Dr Sujoy Lal Thaosen, who is on a five-day visit to Nepal, made this request during his formal meeting with Raju Aryal, Inspector General of the Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal. “The citizens of Pakistan and China have been entering India after engaging in illegal activities in the Nepal-India border areas. The Armed Police Force should play a role to prevent them from entering India,” a highly-placed official of the Armed Police Force who attended the meeting quoted SSB Director General Thaosen as saying in the meeting.

In the Nepal-India border security, management and coordination meeting, Director General Thaosen proposed that Nepal should stop the entry of third country citizens into India and their illegal activities. In response, APF Inspector General Aryal said that there is no anti-India activity on the Nepali soil and that people from third countries have not entered India through the Nepal-India border.

“But the Indian side did not seem to agree with Nepal's assurance and said that as the citizens of third countries were seen entering India from Nepal, they insisted that it should be stopped anyway," said the highly-placed APF official.

APF Spokesperson SSP Purushottam Thapa said that the meeting was a regular one between the two countries. He said that the issue of establishing coordination between the police officers of the two countries to control crime in the border areas was discussed in the meeting.

“Discussions were held on curbing the criminal activities in the border areas. We are not authorized to speak beyond that. The Ministry of Home Affairs or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will speak further on the issue," said Spokesperson Thapa. He said that since it was a regular meeting, it was not necessary to bring out many other issues.

A DIG who participated in the meeting said that the Indian side complained that citizens of China and Pakistan enter India through the porous Nepal-India border to carry out illegal activities. According to him, Inspector General Aryal said that there are many complaints that so far citizens of third countries involved in suspicious activities have not entered India from Nepal, but they have come to Nepal after committing crimes in India.

"Indian security personnel have arrested a Pakistani who entered from the Bhittamod area a few months ago. In the meeting, the Indian side presented this as an example", said a source present in the meeting.

In the meeting, Nepal's security officials made a proposal to control the illegal arms and drugs trade in Nepal from the Indian side. Similarly, Inspector General Aryal also discussed the issue of narcotics entering Nepal from India, details of small arms brought from India seized by APF in the past, criminals hiding in Nepal after committing crimes in India and looting Nepali people in the border areas.

Meanwhile, SSB Director General Thaosen said that he would immediately inform the units concerned about the issues raised by Nepal. In the meeting, it was jointly decided to set up a help desk at the southern border crossings. The Nepal-India meeting on border security, management and coordination, which started on Tuesday, concluded on Thursday.

The representatives of the home and foreign ministries of both countries also participated in the meeting. According to the predetermined agenda, an agreement has been reached to set up help desks on both sides of the international border and make arrangements for safe movement.

Likewise, immediately after the meeting, the APF headquarters issued a circular to the Border Outposts (BOPs) set up along the border with India and instructed them to operate the help desks. There are 220 BOPs of the APF along the Nepal-India border. Similarly, India has stationed SSB units at more than 530 places along Nepal-India border.

 
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