Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has proposed to India’s Border Security Force (BSF) that trespassers be handed over directly to the respective border force instead of going through the police, at a high level meeting between the forces in Dhaka.
“If a trespasser does not have a serious criminal record, he or she should be handed over directly to the respective border force so that they are quickly released. Otherwise, judicial procedures in both countries require a long time before they are released,” a senior official taking part in the ongoing director general level talks between the two forces at BGB Headquarters in Pilkhana, told the Dhaka Tribune last night.
The official said in many cases Bangladeshi trespassers had to suffer for more than a year in addition to serving a six-month jail term in India for illegally entering the country.
“We proposed the direct handing over of trespassers who are not carrying any contraband, but had crossed the border to meet relatives in a foreign territory,” the official, who requested not to be named, said.
The follow up meeting began amid the recent border killing of a Bangladeshi farmer, Moshiur Rahman Moshi, 35, by BSF on Thursday along the Medinipur frontier in Jibonnagar upazila in Chuadanga. The BSF delegation was in Dhaka at that time for the conference.
According to media reports, BSF members from the Putkhali border camp in India entered the Bangladesh territory and opened fire on a group of farmers, numbering four or five, while they were working in the fields around 5pm, leaving Moshi dead on the spot and two others injured.
An official said, “We are not sure whether DG [BGB chief] has discussed the killing at the one to one talk over breakfast with his counterpart.”
Sources taking part in the talks said Thursday’s killing was not raised at the meeting.
In the last 11 months, the BSF rounded up 2,899 Bangladeshis while trespassing and handed them over to local police.
During the same period, the BGB detained 192 Indian nationals inside the Bangladesh territory. Of the 192 Indian nationals, 115 people were sent back to India while 77 were handed over to the Bangladesh police.
The BGB and BSF delegations were following up on border related issues after the last meeting held in New Delhi in August.
The BGB director general, Major General Aziz Ahmed said the discussion was fruitful and he hoped some important decisions would be taken to maintain a peaceful border.
An Indian Home Ministry official at the talks expressed concern over the infiltration of Rohingya nationals since there were indications of Rohingya involvement in recent terrorist activities in India.
The BGB side followed up the trial of the Felani killing case.
The BSF shot dead Felani Khatun on January 7, 2011 while she was crossing the border into Bangladesh over barbed-wire fences at Anantapur of Phulbari in Kurigram along with her father.
The BGB chief was leading a 23-member team while BSF director general Devendra Kumar Pathak was leading a 19-member Indian team to the talks.
The BGB delegation includes its additional director general, regional commanders, and officials of its headquarters, officials of the Home and Foreign Affairs Ministries, Department of Narcotics, National Security Intelligence, Land Records and Survey and the Joint Rivers Commission.
The BSF delegation includes senior officials of BSF headquarters, frontier inspectors general and officials of the Union Internal and External Affairs Ministries.
The meeting emphasised ways to control border crimes especially smuggling of arms and drugs in line with the Coordinated Border Management Plan signed on July 30, 2011, officials said.
Starting at 11am, the yesterday’s talks continued until 2:20pm.
The Indian delegation will travel to Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf over the next two days.
The high-level meeting will be concluded with the signing of a Joint Record of Discussions on December 29.
Bangladesh shares 2,429 miles of border with India.