Dhaka, Sept 17 – A four-day border conference between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) formally began in Dhaka on Thursday with a greater focus on border killing and cross-border crimes, including drug smuggling. A 13-member Bangladesh delegation, led by BGB Director General (DG) Major General Md Shafeenul Islam and a six-member Indian delegation, headed by BSF DG Rakesh Asthana, joined the 50th BGB-BSF DG-level talks that started at 10:45 am at the BGB headquarters.
The conference is scheduled to conclude with the signing of a Joint Record of Discussions (JRD) on Saturday, said a BGB press release.
It said issues relating to shooting, killing and injuring the unarmed Bangladeshi nationals along the border, smuggling of phensedyl, hemp, liquor, yaba, Viagra, Senegra tablets and other narcotic drugs from the other side of the border to Bangladesh, smuggling of weapons, ammunition and explosives, detaining and picking up Bangladeshi citizens, crossing the border illegally/forcing people to enter Bangladesh and pushing mentally unbalanced Indian nationals into Bangladesh were discussed on the first day of the formal talks.
Besides, some other issues, including carrying developmental construction work within 150 yards of the border, protecting riverbanks along the border between the two countries, constructing a visitor gallery at Banglabandha ICP, conducting joint patrols for the implementation of Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP), arranging regular meetings of region/ frontier level officers, conducting hill flying training and operations in the hilly region and the ways to enhance the mutual communication and existing friendship between two border forces came up for discussion.
Earlier, the BGB-BSF DGLT was postponed on September 13 as the BSF delegation failed to reach Dhaka due to a technical glitch in their aircraft. – UNB
