Action against insurgents among issues BSF to raise with BGB

Action against the Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) and prevention of attacks on BSF troopers as well as Indian civil by Bangladesh criminals are among six issues the Indian paramilitary force will raise in the 49th DG-level talks with Border Guards Bangladesh beginning here from Thursday.

In the bilateral border coordination conference, the Border Security Force (BSF) will also raise issue of joint efforts to prevent trans-border crimes like smuggling of cattle, Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and gold.

Issues of other crimes like illegal migration and human trafficking, breaching of India-Bangladesh border fence, border violations, and illegal crossing, kidnapping or abduction, and illegal crossing by nationals of countries other than Bangladesh will also be raised, an official said.

Besides, issues related with border infrastructure - construction of single row fencing, infrastructure works and construction within 150 yards of International Border without prior intimation - would be raised in the talks being attended by an 11-member BGB team, headed by its Director General Md Shafeenul Islam.

Joint efforts for effective implementation of a Comprehensive Border Management Plan through simultaneous coordinated patrols, identification of vulnerable areas and sharing of Information, and confidence building measures would be other issues the BSF has decided to raise in the conference where it will have a 10-member delegation.

BSF Director General Vivek Johri, along with senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as other law enforcement agencies will participate in the border coordination conference on Thursday as the Bangladesh delegation will reach the national capital on Wednesday.

The BGB delegation will return home on December 30.

The first session of the conference between the BSF and BGB will be held on Thursday at the BSF camp in west Delhi's Chhawla area.

The previous BSF-BGB Border Co-ordination Conference was held from June 12 to 15 this year at Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.

This conference is organised to discuss border related issues and for better coordination between the both border guarding forces.

The Joint India-Bangladesh guidelines for Border Authorities, 1975 envisage that there should be frequent contacts between the border authorities of the two countries concerned to discuss the matter of immediate administrative concern.

An Indian delegation under the leadership of then BSF Director General, Ashwani Kumar, and the Bangladesh delegation headed by the then Director General BDR (now BGB) Major Gen Quazi Golam Dastgir, met at Kolkata on December 2, 1975 for the first time to discuss mutual border problems.

Since then, the meetings between the DGs of the two forces were held annually alternatively in India and Bangladesh till 1993.

During discussions between the Home Secretaries of India and Bangladesh that were held at Dhaka from Oct 7 to 9 in 1993, it was agreed that the Director General level meetings between the BSF and its Bangladeshi counterpart would now be a bi-annual event.

In the agreed summary of discussions during this meeting, it was emphasised that problems in the areas of mutual interests and concerns could be progressively resolved through close contacts and continuing meaningful dialogue at various levels.

Accordingly, ths chiefs of both forces have been holding border coordination meetings twice a year alternatively at Delhi and Dhaka and joint record of discussions of these meetings are forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs after each such meeting.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )