A four-day bi-annual border conference between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Border Security Force (BSF), ended on Wednesday in Agartala, the capital of the northeast Indian state of Tripura.
“At the border coordination conference, the BGB and BSF have adopted a zero tolerance policy to curb border menaces like smuggling of arms, explosives, drugs, and human trafficking along the frontiers,” Additional Director General of BGB, Mohammad Zahid Hasan, told reporters at the BSF Tripura Frontier Headquarters in Shalbagan, 12km North of Agartala.
“We have shared our views and adopted strategies to check trans-border crimes,” he said, adding they are not facing any major challenges along the frontiers.
Elaborating on the Rohingya refugee issue, Hasan said, “So far there are no security related challenges from them. We’ve confined them within the camps. If those refugees try to come out of the camps, we’ll prevent them.”
“We are managing over 1 million Rohingya refugees, despite our limitations and capabilities. We feel they have mounted socio-economic pressure on our country, but there is no terror threat from them,” added the additional director general of BGB.
Striking a different note, BSF Tripura Frontier Inspector General, Hemant Kumar Lohia said, “It cannot be ruled out that terror acts may involve Rohingya refugees. However, so far no criminal evidence has been found in the Rohingya refugee camps or against individual Rohingyas.”
As for other issues, the BSF Tripura Frontier Inspector General said, “There is no problem in building fencing along the Indo-Bangla borders and there is no problem with management of the fencing gates via which farmers and border people are crossing the fencing.”
“Recently, we have crossed a milestone in containing narcotics smuggling. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had already declared making Tripura a drug-addiction free state. In adherence to his decision, we have achieved phenomenal success in containing smuggling of drugs and other narcotics items,” added the BSF Tripura Frontier Inspector General.
