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CALCUTTA, India, Feb 6 (AFP) - Bangladesh on Thursday took back 213 migrants, mostly snake-charmers, who had been stranded at the Indo-Bangladesh border after being denied entry by Indian authorities, an Indian official said.

The group was stopped Friday by India's Border Security Force (BSF) after they apparently tried to enter India at Coochbehar, 650 kilometres (403 miles) north of Calcutta.

"The infiltrators blocked by Indian border guards at Satgachi village in Coochbehar district were taken back by the Bangladesh Rifles early today," BSF spokesman P.P. Gupta told AFP by telephone from Siliguri in the eastern state of West Bengal, of which Calcutta is the capital.

The migrants, stranded in a no man's land between the two countries, had become the focus of an intense diplomatic wrangle over illegal immigrants.

India said the migrants' documents proved they were Bangladeshis. Bangladesh insisted they were Indians. 

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