BSF proposes joint training with BGB
Staff Correspondent:
India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has proposed to Bangladesh’s Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to hold a joint training.
The Indian border guards have been asked to provide more detail on the proposal placed at the four-day border coordination meeting in New Delhi, BGB Director General (DG) Major General Aziz Ahmed said on Tuesday.
The BSF also told BGB of efforts to bring the border killings down to zero and a fair trial for Felani killing, he said.
Currently BGB officials go to India for taking training at different BSF academies. The BSF has proposed joint training in addition to the current arrangements.
Gen Ahmed said, “We have asked them to give a concrete proposal explaining the types of this joint training and how they will be organised.”
He said 10 BGB officials had gone to a BSF academy to undertake training in April after secretary-level meeting between the two countries last year and more will go in December.
But the new proposal was not similar to the training BGB officials were getting now, Ahmed said.
The BGB chief said BSF was reinvestigating the Felani murder case.
He said the BSF sent a letter to BGB headquarters a week before the meeting asking whether it would be possible to send Felani’s father and uncle over to help in the reinvestigatiion.
Ahmed said BGB also assured the Indian border guards of their assistance.
Both parties at the meeting in New Delhi had emphasised making sure that people on either side of the border follow law in a bid to bring the number of border killings down to zero, he added.
The BGB and BSF both agreed that the killings mainly took place due to smuggling and drug trafficking through the border.
The BGB director general said, “Crimes is the cause of illegal trespassing. Border killings will decrease if we can curb the rate of crime in the borders.”
Both parties agreed on beefing up border patrol at night, he said.
The BSF also provided the BGB with a list of 71 hideouts of Indian separatists inside Bangladesh’s territory.
He said the BSF had provided a similar list earlier, but nothing was found.
“Our stance against separatists is clear – they will not be allowed to carry out terrorism from our land,” Gen Aziz said.
Both border guards reached an agreement on identifying the smuggling routes through the border and shutting them down.
Gen Aziz led a 20-strong BGB team while BSF was represented by a 24-member team led by its chief DK Pathak at the meeting.