India will this year start deporting over 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants because they pose a security threat, the interior ministry said today.
The decision was taken at a security meeting of state police chiefs, senior state bureaucrats and federal security officials who agreed to conduct the drive between April and June.
The interior ministry statement did not give details of why illegal immigrants from its eastern neighbour were considered a security threat.
Indian security agencies have in the past accused illegal Bangladeshi immigrants - most of them Muslims - of committing crimes and say some of them work for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.