Dhaka: Patrolling along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border has been intensified so that nobody can trespass into Bangladesh territory, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

“We’ve already increased patrol along the border with Myanmar so that nobody can intrude into our area,” he told reporters while replying to a question over the possible influx of Rohingyas through the border amid tension in neighbouring Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The minister was talking to reporters after a meeting of the national committee on smuggling resistance held at his ministry.

About the meeting outcome, the Home Minister said the meeting decided to increase anti-smuggling drives along the border. “The drives will be monitored regularly to make the anti-smuggling drives effective,” he added.

Besides, scanning machines will be set up at all checkposts and land ports along the border alongside setting up of very important surveillance devices.

The Home Minister said special drives will be carried out in the frontier areas through coordination among the agencies concerned to prevent the entry of illegal firearms into the country from neighbouring countries.

He said law enforcement agencies, including Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), so far conducted 3.8 lakh anti-smuggling drives during the first half of the current year.

During the period, the law enforcers arrested 9,862 people and seized contraband items worth Tk 1,261 crore in connection with the anti-smuggling drives across Bangladesh, he added.

Senior Home Secretary Dr Mozzammel Hoque Khan, newly appointed director general BGB Maj Gen Abul Hossain and senior officials of the law enforcement and intelligences agencies were present at the meeting.