Director General (DG) of Border Guard Bangladesh Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said Monday the issues of firing and killing of Bangladeshi nationals along border will be top of the agenda during talks with India until the number comes to zero, reports UNB.
"The incidents of any death and loss of life on the border are extremely unfortunate and regrettable," he said while briefing reporters after a Joint Record of Discussions on the last day of the formal border talks between BGB and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) at the Pilkhana BGB headquarters Monday.
The formal border talks began on Friday where the director general of the paramilitary force led a 23-member Bangladesh delegation while his Indian counterpart Shri Devendra Kumar Pathak a 20-man Indian delegation to the conference.
Maj Gen Aziz said both BGB and BSF identified several vulnerable points on the frontier where incidents of killing occur. "We'll review it every six months. We're agreed to take all possible measures to bring down the death toll to zero," the DG BGB said.
He said the meeting also agreed to take measures like increasing vigilance in areas vulnerable to cattle smuggling, increasing coordinated patrols especially at night in vulnerable areas, deployment of Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs), and educating border population about the sanctity of International Boundary (IB).
Highlighting the importance of Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP) in curbing the menace of trans-border crimes like smuggling of illegal drugs, fake currency notes, gold and cattle, Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said the both sides agreed to implement the CBMP in letter and spirit.
BGB and BSF agreed to take appropriate steps to prevent the issues of illegal border crossings and human trafficking. Both the DGs emphasised the importance of sensitisation of border populace in this regard, he added.
When asked about continued killing of Bangladeshi nationals by BSF members, its DG Shri Devendra Kumar Pathak said the incidents of border killing have been decreased since his force started using non-lethal weapon.
Giving statistics, he said around 106 Bangladeshi people were killed along border in 2007. "When we started using non-lethal weapons in 2010, the number of killing incidents decreased to 32 in that year."
He, however, alleged that the number of attack on BSF members by miscreants along border has witnessed a rise. "We're not happy over the decreasing of killing incident as we want to bring it down to zero level," the BSF chief said, seeking cooperation of both BGB and the people living in bordering areas in this regard.
Meanwhile, the meeting decided that the next DG level conference would be held in New Delhi in April/May which will be followed another DGLT in Dhaka in September/October in 2015.
