Bangladesh and India are going to sign an agreement on 'coordinated border management plan' to check crimes such as killing, trafficking in persons and drug smuggling in the borders of the two neighbouring countries during the official visit of India's home minister to Dhaka in July 29–30.
The Indian home minister, P Chidambaram, scheduled to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow, will hold a meeting with her counterpart Sahara Khatun at the secretariat on Saturday morning to discuss border security, border management and the planned move for enclave exchange now in adverse possession between the two countries, said a senior official at the home affairs ministry.
The chiefs of India's s Border Security Force and the Border Guard Bangladesh are expected to sign the deal on July 30. 'This is for the first time that India and Bangladesh are planning a coordinated border management, especially to reduce the number of casualties of civilians,' joint secretary of the home ministry Kamal Uddin Ahmed told New Age on Wednesday.
He said that both the countries would strengthen patrol in 'designated areas' along the borders to check cross-border crimes and illegal movement of persons.
The Joint Boundary Working Group headed by joint secretaries of the two countries has prepared the draft of the document. The group will sit at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka today to give a final touch to the draft.
Kamal Uddin, also leading the Joint Boundary Working Group from the Bangladesh side, said that India usually attributed the cause of casualties to illegal movement of civilians along the border. 'So we have decided to strengthen patrol in designated areas along the borders.'
Both the countries have agreed to sign the deal to jointly manage 700 'vulnerable stretches' to contain crimes along the borders between the two countries, officials concerned said.
'The two governments have been working for about two years on a joint border management plan to reach an agreement on managing 700 vulnerable stretches along the borders. The stretches have been created by rivers or infrastructures. Most of the cross-border crimes are committed at these points,' an official said.
Chidambaram will visit Dhaka at the invitation of his Bangladesh counterpart Sahara Khatun.
The agreement on the coordinated border management plan would be inked in line with the Land Boundary Agreement signed in 1974 between the two countries.
The two countries formed the working group headed by the joint secretaries of their home ministries in 2002 to settle issues involving territories in adverse possession, enclaves and demarcation of 6.5 kilometres of un-demarcated border areas. Bangladesh and India share a 4,098-kilometre porous border.
Source : New Age
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