India, Bangladesh open crucial five-day border talks

From Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Sep 26 (PTI) Hoping to chart out modalities for a
joint border management system, India and Bangladesh Monday
discussed ways to tackle cross-frontier crimes like drug
smuggling and trafficking of women and children.
These discussions took place on the opening day of the
crucial five-day border talks between the two countries at the
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) headquarters in Pilkhana here.
A 21-member Indian team at the talks is being led by
Border Security Force (BSF) Director General Raman Srivastava
while BGB chief Maj Gen Anwar Hossain is heading the 23-strong
Bangladeshi delegation.
Officials familiar with the process said the subsequent
discussions are expected to chart out modalities for a
comprehensive joint border management system in line with an
agreement signed during Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram's
July 30 Dhaka visit.
They said the joint management system is expected to
resolve all outstanding frontier issues, including combating
cross-border crimes, and enhance quality of border management
as well as ensure cross-border security.
After the first day's talks, BGB chief Hossain said
Bangladesh was satisfied with the steps taken by the Border
Security Force in reducing frontier shootings.
"BSF has taken steps to stop the border killing as
promised by Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram ... we are
largely satisfied with the current situation," Hossain told
PTI.
He said the issue largely dominated the first day of
talks and both sides agreed to reduce the incidents of
frontier killings to "zero" level.
Bangladesh also "raised another major issue" of its
concern, "which is cross-border drug smuggling," Hossain said.
"It exposed our second generation to danger and we strongly
sought BSF support to stop it."
"We also discussed the issue of women and children
trafficking and we both strongly expressed our vow to stop
it," he said.
India and Bangladesh share an over 4,000 km-long porous
border.