Habiul Biswas and his wife Sajda Biswas quietly step down from a vehicle and walk towards a row of closed shops near Hakimpur border checkpost in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
The check post, a couple of kilometres from the zero line, is heavily guarded by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and monitored by surveillance cameras. Every villager — whether on foot, by bicycle or by motorbike — is frisked before being allowed through.
Polythene sheets have been laid out in front of the closed shops, and just a couple of hours ago, a group of 20 to 30 Bangladesh nationals had assembled at the spot just before crossing the border checkpost towards the international border.
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In their thirties, the couple goes to the same spot where the earlier group of Bangladeshi nationals had assembled. They claim to have entered India from Bangladesh about six years ago. “First, we went to Delhi. Then we stayed at Duttapukur near Kolkata. We used to collect old newspapers and other articles from people’s homes,” says Mr. Habiul.
