Illegal Bangladeshis in India a security risk: envoy

AFP

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - More than 25,000 Bangladeshis who travel to neighbouring India annually on legitimate short-term visas do not return home, New Delhi's envoy to Dhaka said Monday.

Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said these migrants from the Muslim-majority country pose a security threat to his nation, which has been hit by series of militant attacks in recent years.

'We do have security concerns. We wish to know who is going and who is coming back,' Chakravarty said.

'Out of all the visas we have issued to Bangladeshi nationals, more than 25,000 holding legal visas have not returned every year. We don't know where they have gone and what they are doing,' he said.

The Indian embassy in Dhaka has said it issues about half a million short-term visas to Bangladeshis every year, with patients and tourists making up the bulk of the number.

India helped Bangladesh in its war of independence in 1971 but in recent years ties have often been strained by border skirmishes and New Delhi's accusations that Dhaka-based Islamic groups were behind a number of blasts across India - though not the Mumbai attacks in November.