AGARTALA, July 10 - A four-day meeting of the Inspectors General of the BSF and the Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) will begin at the BSF�s Tripura Frontier headquarters at Salbagan here on July 22, according to official sources.
Regional commanders of the BGB�s Sarail and Chittagong units and the BSF�s three frontiers heads of Tripura, Meghalaya and Cachar are scheduled to discuss various border-related issues, said L Lohia, the IG of the Tripura Frontier BSF here today. Although the regional level meeting is routine, transborder movement, smuggling and border crime will be on the table when both sides join the meeting.
�Except some issues, both sides maintain excellent relations while manning the Indo-Bangla border with no major border dispute coming to the forefront,� said the IG.
Lohia further said border crime has drastically declined along the Indo-Bangla border due to better understanding between the BSF and the BGB. �Border guards of both sides have formed a joint task force to arrest smuggling and the results are excellent,� he said.
He further added that the BGB has set up five border outposts in the Chittagong Hills Tract (CHT) to maintain vigil along the border. �This move has proved in handy to curb cross-border movement of insurgents through the CHT. Now militant activities have come down to almost zero in the State�s eastern side, adjacent to the CHT,� he added.
Fencing has also contributed a lot to curb crimes along the Indo-Bangladesh border, which witnessed fierce encounters between insurgents and security forces from 1997 to 2008. Around 90 per cent of the total 856-km Indo-Bangla border has already been fenced so far.
