India-Bangladesh border guarding forces to hold joint exercise

KOLKATA: In a first, border guarding forces of India and Bangladesh will hold a joint exercise beginning tomorrow along the International Border they share in the Sunderbans area of West Bengal.

Officials said a company-level (about 100 personnel) strength of Border Security Force and Border Guards Bangladesh ( BGB) each along with their equipments, floating border posts and patrol boats will engage with each other for three days between March 11-14.

The two forces will undertake joint 'long-range' patrolling on mechanised vessels, undertake mutual checking of cargo vessels deep inside border areas before they go in international waters and exchange common information and communication.

"The joint exercise will help in enhancing mutual cooperation and coordination between the two forces and help further improve the border management along Indo-Bangla border," a senior BSF official said.

A decision to hold such an exercise was taken during the Director General-level talks between the two sides in Dhaka in December 2014.

BSF has mobilised its South Bengal frontier for the task, they said.

India shares a total of 4,096 km of border with Bangladesh.