India, Bangladesh hold border talks in Dhaka

DHAKA: India and Bangladesh today began a five-day dialogue here between border guarding forces over a host of security issues, including drug trafficking and cattle smuggling across the over 4,000-km frontier the two neighbours share.

A 21-member delegation led by Border Security Force Chief K K Sharma yesterday reached Dhaka to hold the talks at the Pilkhana-based headquarters of their counterpart Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

The 23-member Bangladeshi delegation is being led by BGB Chief Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed.

The talks were earlier scheduled to be held in December last year but had to be postponed due to the crash of a BSF aircraft in Delhi killing 10 personnel on the day of the departure of the Indian delegation.

The situation along the Indo-Bangla boundary has improved after the two sides signed an agreement on exchange of border enclaves.

The Indian team, including officials from the Union Home Ministry and border enforcement agencies, will discuss measures to further enhance security along the border and brief the BGB delegation about measures put in place to completely stop instances of cattle smuggling and other illegal substances across the boundary.

Indian delegation sources said that the BGB is expected to raise the issue of bringing about a complete halt on border killing incidents and suggest enforcement of some strict security protocols by both the sides to achieve this goal.

"A host of issues relating to activities of Indian insurgent groups suspected to be operating from the other side, smuggling of fake Indian currency, drugs and other banned items will be discussed. Some new measures to enhance operational efficiency and effective border domination between the two sides will also be discussed by the two sides," they said.

The last time the two sides met was in August last year when a BGB team travelled to India for talks.

A joint record of discussions will be signed between the two sides at the end of the Dhaka talks.