Barbed wire fence along Tripura-Bangladesh border by 2007

AGARTALA, JANUARY 25 (PTI) A 736 km-long barbed wire fence would be erected along the border with Bangladesh in Tripura by 2007 to check infiltration, smuggling and movement of insurgents into the state, BSF Director General Rajsekhar Mushari today said.

''It is a well known fact that the ultras of different outfits of the north-eastern region are using the Bangladesh soil and fencing the border would be effective in checking it... Past experiences show that the fencing yielded results,'' he told reporters here.

Tripura shares 840 km long border with Bangladesh.

Mushari was speaking to the press after his visit to the border areas of West Tripura district where work is on to put up the fence.

He said a 'good' number of people would have to be evicted from the border villages to allow the fences to be put up and they would be rehabilitated.

''But I am not aware about the fate of those people who would be left on the other side of the fences,'' he said when asked.

''The state and central governments should take the decision about them and BSF would arrange for their security if they live on the other side of the fencing.'' BSF, the nodal agency for erecting the fences, had earlier said more than 40,000 people would be left on the other side of the fencing as it is being constructed 150 yards away from the zero line to adhere to the Indira-Mujib pact of 1971.