BSF for resolving issues, says sorry for BDR deaths

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Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Border Security Forces (BSF) of India agreed to resolve all “outstanding development issues” related to border security within the next month except for issues that concern Bangladesh-India Joint River Commission.

The border security forces of the two neighbouring countries also agreed on four other issues including identifying areas of the border vulnerable to trans-border crime.

“We have identified border areas vulnerable to trans-border crime,” BSF Director General (DG) Ashish Kumar Mitra said, adding that BDR and BSF will jointly patrol these areas.

The BDR and BSF director generals revealed the outcome of the five-day conference during a press conference held at the BDR headquarters at Pilkhana in city. The five-day BDR-BDF director-general-level conference kicked off on August 20.

The BSF DG apologised for the July 18, 2008 incident at a border that left two BDR personnel dead.

“It was an isolated incident… this is simply ridiculous… this aberration should not have happened, I apologies for that and we are carrying out an enquiry…. we will take action against the fellows,” he said.

He asked to bear in mind that these were individual aberrations and were not an organisational response.

The BSF DG said, “The BDR and the BSF guard more than 4,000km of border and therefore it would be quite unreasonable to expect that nothing is going to happen on this long border guarded by more than 100,000 armed people on both sides.”

“However, as far as this incident is concerned, I can only say that it is highly regrettable, it should not have happened,” he added.

On cattle smuggling in border areas, the BSF DG said there is no alternative to legalising cattle trading in border areas.

The conference also agreed to find out ways to stop cattle smuggling which they termed the main reason for most of the shooting incidents.

He said BDR and BSF would share information on cattle smuggling under a pilot project. He said this would help BDR arrest illegal cattle traders if the BSF failed to arrest them.

BSF also sought permission from BDR to erect fences at 46 places on borders between the two countries. The two sides also exchanged a list of alleged criminals reportedly hiding in their countries. The conference also agreed to have commandant-level meets once a month.

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