Bangladesh News

The border guards of Bangladesh and India yesterday agreed to ensure that no innocent civilians are killed in the boarder guards’ fire.

Bangladesh Rifles also proposed joint management of the borders by BDR and Border Security Force of India.

Several shooting incidents between the border guards have been reported from Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya during last one month in which civilians were caught in crossfire.

Director General of BDR Maj Gen Mainul Islam said Bangladesh was “upset” over the killing of innocent civilians in the border areas. “We have decided to show utmost restraints in this regard, limiting visits of civilians at the zero line areas,” he added.

BSF Director General Raman Srivastava during a joint media interaction at the BSF headquarters in New Delhi said, “We have agreed to ensure that no innocent civilian is shot by the troops. We have no reason to fire on innocent civilians.”

The media interaction was held after signing of the Joint Record of Discussions between the two border guard chiefs.

Maj Gen Mainul said “criminals” who violate the curfew imposed at the border during the nights need to be watched out for. He said most of the killings at the border took place at night, which needs to be looked into.

The border-guard chiefs agreed to ensure that the spirit of joint communiqué signed between the prime ministers of the two countries should percolate down to the troops on the ground to prevent such incidents.

“The will of our political leaders should be disseminated to the ground and for that we have sat down. We have discussed all our differences,” Mainul said.

The BDR chief said, “Our concern is the killing of innocent people. Both of us have to do something about it. We have discussed these issues.”

Mainul, who led a 19-member delegation to the four-hour annual summit-level talks between the border guards of the two countries Monday, said BDR has put forward a draft proposal to BSF for joint management of the border. Bangladesh has cleared the proposal.

Srivastava acknowledged that there had been some cases of BSF jawans crossing over to the Bangladesh side and strict action has been taken against them. He said a proposal for installing floodlights at the border is under consideration but it would take time to install them considering difficult terrain in the border areas.

Srivastava said there were geographical realities at the border which are affecting the fencing process along the over 4,000km border.

Mainul also thanked the former BSF chief ML Kumawat for his support during the period immediately after the mutiny at BDR headquarters last year.

Srivastava said both sides arrived “at a good understanding and could know each other’s concerns”. He expressed hope that the outcome of the conference would have “very good influence on the Indo-Bangla relations”.

The BDR chief said, “We got very positive response from BSF on matters of our major concerns and we focused on ground realities during the meeting and we would surely implement the decisions.

“We will follow the wishes of the two leaders [the two prime ministers] who gave us a vision of friendship and cooperation.”

Mainul referred to the Bangladesh government’s firm resolve not to allow its territory to be used for carrying out subversive activities against India and said in a lighter vein “we do not have enough time or resources to harbour terrorists”.

Srivastabha described the responses from Bangladesh side on all issues of India’s concerns as “extremely positive”.

Responding to a question whether India has submitted any list of wanted people to Bangladesh during the conference, the BSF chief answered in the affirmative, saying, “We have only asked them to see whether those people were in Bangladesh.”

Srivastava said BDR is trying to ascertain the presence of Indian insurgents in Bangladesh and it is a difficult task without specific input.

Mainul said, “Whatever arrests we are making, we are making them on evidence, so that they get justice.”

“There is no place for any insurgent from any country in Bangladesh.”