The jubilant people of 162 Bangladesh-India enclaves held a rally in Tin Bigha corridor yesterday ahead of the exchange of the adversely held land between the two countries.
The Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee’s Bangladesh and Indian units jointly arranged the programme in Tin Bigha area, a corridor connecting Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves of Bangladesh with the mainland.
Hundreds of people from 111 Indian enclaves inside Panchagarh, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari districts, led by the committee’s Bangladesh unit President Mainul Haque, brought out a procession in the area around noon and moved to the barbed fence along the border.
Later, they held a joint rally with people from 51 Bangladeshi enclaves inside India who also gathered at the other side of the barbed fence. The joint rally ended around 3:30pm.
Later, Ain O Salish Kendra Executive Director Sultana Kamal joined the crowd at the crossing to express her solidarity with the enclave people.
During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Bangladesh, the historic instruments of ratification of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement and its 2011 Protocol were exchanged, and modalities for ensuring smooth implementation of the agreement and protocol were worked out under an exchange of letters.