The Border Security Force on Wednesday rushed in reinforcements and put all its battalions in West Bengal sector on high alert following reports that the Bangladesh Rifles had dug at least three trenches opposite Satgachi area where 213 Bangladeshis are stranded on the zero line since Saturday.

BSF sources said the BDR has also put the Bangladesh Army on an alert further heigtening the tension along the stand-off point in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district.

The BSF on Wednesday morning handed over a letter to the BDR objecting to the digging of the trenches opposite the Satgachi village. The BSF letter, written by BSF DIG in-charge of the Coochbehar sector D L Choudhury also expressed displeasure over the fact that the Bangladeshis have been refusing a meeting over the issue of stranded snake charmers.

The reinforced BSF troops have set up mortars and machine guns and have taken up position along the road leading to the spot where the 213 people are currently camping. Although senior BSF officials are sure that the BDR will not take a provocative action, none of them is prepared to take any chances. "After all, the BDR has dug up trenches inside the 150 yard line which is in itself is against the agreed guidelines," a BSF official said.

Meanwhile, afraid of  the BDR and the local Bangladeshi residents, the stranded snake charmers are pleading with BSF officials and visiting jouranalists not to send them back to Bangladesh. "Although we are residents of Savar near Dhaka, we can't go back there now because the BDR is bent upon killing us. Please don't force us back," Din Islam the leader of the group, who was severely beaten up by Bangladeshi residents on Monday when he tried to reenter that country with some of his followers. Some others pleaded that they should be sent back to Bangladesh through some other outpost.

In another development, residents of Satgachi village on the Indian side have stepped up their voluntary effort to provide food and medicine to the stranded Bangladeshis.