On Sunday night, Bangladesh suspended services to millions of mobile phones along its border with India for “security” reasons amid fears a new citizenship law passed by its giant neighbour could prompt an influx of migrants.
The country’s telecom regulator ordered the mobile shutdown late Monday along a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) band along the Indian frontier, the watchdog’s spokesman Sohel Rana said.
The directive was issued “for the sake of the country’s security in the current circumstances,” the spokesman told AFP.
Local border guard commander Kamrul Ahsan said the number of people entering Bangladesh from India had risen dramatically as a result of the citizenship law
Bangladesh shares a 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) border with India and the shutdown would affect some 10 million mobile phone users, according to a top official from one operator.
"The #Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has ordered a shutdown of mobile networks along the borders with India citing security reasons, an order estimated to affect around 10 million users, it was reported."#DigitalSocietyhttps://t.co/uC51Q1f6Yg
— Digital Society Project (@DigiSocProj) January 1, 2020
“A large number of people in the border area will be without internet, voice and other mobile services,” said S.M. Farhad, a spokesman for an industry association of local telecom operators.
Officials from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said that the move was prompted by fears of fallout from India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act, which accords rights to refugee migrants from neighbouring countries but excludes Muslims.
Read more: ‘Anti-Muslim’ law causes countrywide protests in India
“We are worried that India’s current condition may prompt many people to enter Bangladesh,” said a BTRC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Bangladesh suspends mobile services along Indian border…. #Bangladesh #India #CAA #NRC https://t.co/SbgxXVabW2
— www.THEPIGEONEXPRESS.com (@TPE_connect) January 1, 2020
However, the Bangladeshi authorities have decided to reverse their decision and restore mobile services along the Indian border. Md Sohel Rana, a deputy director of BTRC’s (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) spectrum management division informed mobile operators of this decision through an email sent on Wednesday morning (01/01/2020).
BTRC reverses their decision of blocking mobile phone operators’ signals up to a kilometre from the borders #Bangladesh https://t.co/XdnyAZsL6F
— The Daily Star (@dailystarnews) January 1, 2020
At least 350 people had been arrested as they entered western border district of Jhenidah from India’s West Bengal state in the last two months, an official said, adding they were mostly Bangladeshi Muslims who went to India illegally.
Local border guard commander Kamrul Ahsan said the number of people entering Bangladesh from India had risen dramatically as a result of the citizenship law.
Two weeks of protests over the law in India have seen at least 27 people killed and hundreds injured after clashes between police and protesters
Two weeks of protests over the law in India have seen at least 27 people killed and hundreds injured after clashes between police and protesters.
The earlier exclusion of nearly two million people from a new list of citizens in India’s Assam state has already triggered fears of deportations to Bangladesh.
Read more: India shuts down internet in hotspot after deadly protests
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said attempts to deport people from India had been thwarted by border guards in recent weeks.
Media reports said hundreds of people who have recently entered Bangladesh from India have been detained by border guards.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk.