The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has assured the Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) to bring down the killing along the border to zero.
The promise came from the Director General Level talks between the two forces ended in Dhaka on Saturday.
BSF Director General Rakesh Asthana said lethal weapons would only be used as a last resort on the frontier of the two countries.
“We are committed to bringing down the border killing to zero level and we’ve been instructed very fairly that we should fire lethal weapons only as a last resort,” Asthana said at a joint press conference after the ending of four-day talk.
“We have assured our BGB counterpart that we can bring down the border killing to zero level,” he said.
A six member BSF delegation led the talk while 13 member BGB team led by its Director General Md. Shafeenul Islam participated in the meeting.
During these discussions, both border guarding forces, BSF and BGB made several proposals to reduce the cross border crimes and to strengthen their security cooperation. Those include:
1. BSF has launched a systematic campaign against the smuggling of codein based cough syrup in the bordering districts of India and will redouble efforts to reduce the cross border drugs and narcotics smuggling. The BGB appreciated the ongoing concerted efforts of BSF in substantially reducing the smuggling of narcotics.
2. Both the border guarding forces recognized the increasingly violent attacks on them by cross border cattle smuggling gangs and agreed to exchange intelligence on smuggling syndicates and list of smugglers to make efforts to significantly reduce the smuggling in order to ensure the India-Bangladesh border remain peaceful and secure.
3. BSF, in response to the concerns expressed by BGB on border deaths, reiterated its policy of use of non-lethal weapons on the India-Bangladesh border and assured that all unarmed and innocent trespassers and victims of human trafficking will be handed over to the BGB personnel.
4. BSF suggestion to launch joint operations against trans cross-border smugglers upon receipt of specific intelligence on their criminal activities was welcomed by BGB.
5. Both the forces agreed that sharing of real time intelligence is the key to reduce the cross border crimes. BSF has proposed nominating officials in both the border guarding forces as the nodal officials for exchanging such real time intelligence.
6. Director General, BSF has proposed initiating joint patrols in cattle smuggling / smuggling prone areas in order to reduce the menace of all kinds of smuggling . The BGB has welcomed the initiative and both the forces agreed that identification of vulnerable areas needs to be in responsive to the new methods being adopted by the trans border smuggling syndicates.
7. Recognizing the difficulties in identifying the nationality of mentally challenged persons, BSF has proposed creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to address such incidents on the border.
8. BGB has suggested issuing daily passes for the people residing in the bordering villages so that they can visit their relatives on the Indian side. BSF has welcomed the suggestion and both the forces agreed to work out a mechanism in consultation with agencies/Ministries concerned to facilitate such social visits.
9. Reiterating the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism, BGB has requested specific intelligence and proposed conducting joint operations against insurgent groups, if any.
10. The onset of COVID pandemic has forced both the forces to stop coordinated patrols on the border. Both the Director Generals agreed to resume these patrols on the border to build mutual confidence in both the forces and also to reduce the cross border crimes.
11. Both the border guarding forces decided to continue their confidence building measures and training programs after the ongoing pandemic subsides.
12. Responding to the request of BGB, BSF assured its cooperation in completing all river bank protection works in the bordering areas of Bangladesh as per approval of Joint River Commission.
The BSF Director General said he recently joined the force and indicated that the situation (border killings) would improve further in future.
“I reaffirm that Bangladesh is a friendly country to us … we’ve very good relations with Bangladesh. Only to stop the criminal activities such measures (killing) were taken in the past,” he said.
“Since I have recently joined, I can only tell you in future you’ll see the rates (killing) and very definitely we will work closely with our counterpart. BGB has been very kind enough to offer their cooperation.”