‘No crime in crime free zone along Bangladesh-India border’

Nilotpal Pandey, commandant of India's Border Security Force (BSF) 64 Battalion, said that in the last one month, no crimes have taken place in the newly-launched crime free zone (CFZ) along the India- Bangladesh border. The BSF commandant made the claim this morning when talking to a Bangladesh media delegation invited to visit the Kalyani area of the 8.3- kilometre CFZ in North 24 Parganas district on the common border between the two countries. Tarikul Hakim, commander of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) 21 Battalion, also said no crimes have taken place in the area since the declaration of a CFZ. The first ever CFZ along the international border was launched last month amid huge festivity as the March 9 event was attended by senior officials from both the friendly neighbours. "We are maintaining a wonderful coordination with our Bangladeshi counterpart, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and we have been able to check crimes like smuggling, human trafficking, and arms smuggling through this point," Pandey added. The BSF official said both the frontier forces maintain 24-7 contact by a telephone line between the border outposts of both the forces. The foundation stone of the Crime Free Zone (CFZ) at Bangladesh-India border in North 24 Parganas district BSS

---

Also Read- Strip of Bangladesh-India border declared crime-free zone

---

"We both will maintain this surveillance 24-7 through mutual coordination. The benefit of such coordination is that if we see any suspicious movement in the Bangladesh part of the zone, we just make a call through the hotline and the BGB goes into action; when they see similar things, they do the same. The criminals can evade the eyes of one party, but not of all," said the second-in-command of BSF 64 Battalion, Raghavendra Singha. The locals are also happy with the CFZ declaration. Dilip Halder, a farmer of village Kalyani, said they are able to work in their fields uninterrupted. Bangladeshi farmer Awal of village Doulatpur said they don't have to live in fear of getting shot on suspicion anymore. "Earlier we used to catch fish in the river Ichhamoti but now there is no fish in the water. But the smugglers used to pretend to be fishermen and carried on their activities through this border. We would avoid coming to the area in fear of coming under fire from BGB-BSF. But now there is no crime, so there is no fear. We are working in our fields happily," he said. Meanwhile, MK Barnwal, Commandant (Ops) BSF's Kolkata Headquarters, dismissed the idea of deploying drones in the area for the time being. "Though we have drones in our headquarters we didn't need to fly them in this area. With coordinated monitoring from both the forces, crime is in check," he said.