BSF opens Assam voting gates for families living outside Bangladesh border fence

SILCHAR: BSF personnel deployed vehicles and opened border gates early on Thursday to help at least 70 families living outside the barbed wire fence on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam’s Sribhumi district reach polling booths and cast their votes, turning the event into a strong assertion of identity for residents of Karimganj South assembly constituency. Voters come from five villages – Gabindapur, Uttar Lafasail, Tesua, Deutoli and Maishashan – which lie outside the fence and are effectively cut off from mainland India. “BSF opened the gates early and helped us reach the polling station in our own vehicles. It was a huge convenience,” said a local voter. After the polls, BSF personnel sent the villagers back to their homes. “We vote in good faith because it reassures us that we are Indians and not just residents of this forgotten land,” the voter added. Sources said the BSF also facilitates pre-poll electoral activities by managing border gates and allowing candidates and their supporters to enter these remote settlements near the zero line. The villages remain outside the fence as the India-Bangladesh accord prohibits permanent construction or fencing within 150 yards of the actual border. Residents of these settlements live under strict movement restrictions, with border gates usually closed between 7pm and 6am. “If there is an emergency, we are always there to help and transport them to nearby towns even after the stipulated time,” a BSF official said. The government is working to rehabilitate villages outside the Sribhumi fence. The region shares a 92-km border with Bangladesh. In neighboring Cachar district, which shares a 32-kilometer border with Bangladesh, all villages that were once outside the fence have been restored to within the confines of the barbed wire fence in the past few years. Efforts are underway to conduct similar resettlement of Sribhumi’s family.