Birgunj, January 10:

The Home Ministry has set up additional border security base camps of the Armed Police Force (APF) in 14 districts of the Tarai region to control the ongoing criminal activities and leakages in revenue collection in the border areas. The added base camps have been established in sensitive areas like Jhapa in the east and Kapilvastu in the west.

The new base camps of the APF have been set up by in the border areas of Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Dhanusha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu and Rupandehi districts.

Additional security men have been mobilised to control the criminal activities especially of the Tarai based armed outfits and the rampant smuggling through the porous border. The Home Ministry officials said that they had mobilised extra security men to improve the deteriorating security situation in the Tarai region.

The border security force in Parsa today set up the new camps in Birgunj’s Chhapakaiya and other rural areas like Aalau, Amarpatti, Pakahamainapur, Sabaithauwa, Subarnapur, Parawanipur, Bageshwori Titrauna and Banjadi. “The establishment of more security base camps will provide the much needed security to the locals,” said Chief of APF Border Security Force SP Pralhad KC, claiming that the APF would reach the incident site within 5-7 minutes after getting the information.”

Interestingly, the locals living in the bordering areas, who make a living out of smuggling through the open border, have called for the removal of the base camps in some places. SP KC said the locals of Amarpatti VDC of Parsa district had already started pressurising the

government to remove the newly set up camp. Large amount of unbeaten rice and other food items are regularly smuggled into Nepal from

Indian markets.