BGB demands BSF steps to prevent border killing

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DHAKA, Jan 2, 2020 (BSS) – Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) today said it
demanded Indian Border Security Force’s (BSF) effective steps to prevent
killings of Bangladeshis on frontiers as casualty figures sharply rose in
2019, three days after the two paramilitary forces wrapped up their talks in
New Delhi.

“The number of border killing in the outgoing year (2019) was highest in
the last four years. As per our calculation, the number of such unexpected
deaths was 35,” BGB Director General (DG) Major General Md Shafeenul Islam
told a media briefing on his return home after the talks in the Indian
capital.

Shafeenul said he urged his BSF counterpart Vivek Kumar Johri to minimize
the border killing to zero level as agreed earlier by the two border forces.

The BGB chief said the BSF estimate of the casualty figure, however, was
much lower than the Bangladesh side calculations.

During the talks, he said, Johri claimed to be following the policy of
maintaining maximum restraint and minimal use of force even after being
attacked by “armed border offenders”.

Shafeenul led an 11-member delegation in the five-day talks while his
counterpart led a 19-member team as the biannual conference was held in Delhi
from December 25-30, 2019.

The BGB chief said both the border forces, however, agreed to take punitive
actions against criminals in frontier areas and trespassing.

He said the conference agreed that trespassers would be handed over to
concerned law enforcement agencies on each side and take effective steps to
prevent cross-border human trafficking, smuggling of weapon and explosives
and drug.

The BGB chief said Johri appreciated BGB and other Bangladeshi law
enforcement agencies cooperation in tracking down Indian separatist elements
while he told him Bangladesh never allow foreign separatists or criminal
gangs to use its soil.

Shafeenul said he conveyed the BSF chef the Bangladesh plan to construct
277 kilometers border road along the Bangladesh-India border when Johri
assured if extending required assistance towards that end.

According to the Joint Record of Discussions (JRD) served to the media, the
BGB and BSF also agreed to pursue and share real time information extracted
from persons detained with smuggled items.

Asked if India’s contentious NRC or citizenship law featured their talks,
the BGB chief answered in the negative but said since the law was passed
1,101 people entered into Bangladesh without papers but all of them were
eventually found to be Bangladeshi nationals.

The next DG level conference will be held in Dhaka in April 2020.