Dhaka, Delhi agree to show utmost restraint along border

FE Team | Published: October 30, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The border-security forces of Bangladesh and India concluded a director general-level conference in the city Monday agreeing to show utmost restraint, and not to press the trigger in daytime to stop trespass, report bdnews24.com and UNB.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Chief Major General Shakil Ahmed and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) Chief AK Mitra expressed an identical view that a trespasser be arrested instead of being shot down.
At least 52 Bangladeshi civilians have been reported killed by BSF troops in the past eight months, indicating a rising incidence of shooting at the frontier.
The nations share a porous border of about 4,000-km where small skirmishes are common. India usually says smuggling and illegal crossings by Bangladeshis are rampant, while Bangladesh accuses India of killing innocent people along the border.
The 5-day border conference, which ended with the signing of a joint record of discussion at the BDR HQ, also reached a consensus on handing over terrorists hiding in each other's country, and exchanging information about them.
Regarding non-demarcation of 6.5-km of the common boundary, it was decided that the BSF Director General would request the Indian government to take effective steps to demarcate the borderline that includes 2-km of Muhurir Char, 1.5-km of Doikhata and 3-km of Lathitila.
On unfettered access of the Bangladeshi inhabitants of Dahagram and Angerpota through the 'Tin Bigha corridor', the BDR chief said, they were contemplating to build a flyover connecting the two enclaves with the Bangladesh mainland, so they could vault over the regulated Indian passage. "It would be finalised with the approval of the two governments."
He reiterated Bangladesh's commitment to implementation of the 1974 Mujib-Indira border agreement, and the 1975 Bangladesh-India border guidelines to resolve the problems concerning construction of defence infrastructure, military barbed-wire fences and installations.
In reply to a question the BSF chief said, three Bangladeshi criminals had already been handed over to Bangladesh authorities, and more criminals who were facing cases in Kolkata Court would be turned over after the court's judgement.
The BDR side handed over a list of 1,591 "criminals", while BSF handed over a list of 141 "insurgent camps" - a swap routinely done at such border talks between the two next-door neighbours. Mitra said, they made the list on the basis of intelligence reports and detained Indian insurgents' confessional statements.
He welcomed what he called dismantling by BDR two Indian "insurgents" camps in the Chittagong Hill Tracts recently, but the BDR chief refused to dub those "insurgents" camps.
However, the BDR director general said, "To the best of my knowledge there are no Indian insurgent camps in Bangladesh. We have investigated earlier on the basis of the Indian list, but no such camp was found."
Shakil said, two bamboo-made huts that were destroyed might have been used by local criminals, and they did not belong to the Indian insurgent outfits.
In reply to a question he said, 52 Bangladeshis were killed in last eight months, two of them within the Bangladesh territory while the rest on the Indian side.
"Those who crossed the international border, I cannot call them innocent," said the BDR chief. However, he said, the trespassers should not be killed by shooting.