KATHMANDU: Minister of Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa has asked Nepal Police to deploy more personnel on the Nepal-India border in a bid to ‘strictly implement the national lockdown.’

The decision was taken following a joint security meeting at the ministry on Sunday. The home ministry later issued a press release stating that despite heavy patroling by Nepal’s security personnel on the southern border, a number of people were clandestinely crossing the border.

Thapa also asked the law enforcement agency to increase patrolling during the night time.

There are 22,646 Armed Police Force personnel deployed on the border. Of them, 8,383 personnel were deployed after the lockdown. There are 120 border observation posts, which are the major routes for transporting goods.

There are additional 1,176 temporary check posts, some of which were established after the lockdown.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 4, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.