GUWAHATI, Sept 3 � The Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) will jointly identify the vulnerable patches along the international border for launching coordinated patrolling on both sides of the border.
Highly-placed sources in the BSF told The Assam Tribune that the decision to go for joint identification of the vulnerable patches was taken after the signing of the joint border management agreement between India and Bangladesh during the visit of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to Dhaka in July. The border guarding forces of the countries have been asked to complete the task of identifying the vulnerable patches within three months.
Sources said that a mechanism for sharing of information between the two forces has also been put in place for better coordination and cooperation between the forces. An officer of the level of Deputy Inspector General has been designated as the nodal officer for each frontier as nodal officer for maintaining proper coordination between the forces so that all issues can be revolved immediately. The number of meetings at various levels has also been increased to improve coordination between the border guarding forces.
Sources said that extra precautions have been taken all along the international border ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Dhaka. �We are taking care to ensure that no untoward incident occurs along the international border before or during the Prime Minister�s visit,� sources said. However, the BSF has already been asked to exercise restraint and to use lethal weapons only when it is absolutely necessary and the personnel of the force would be given non-lethal weapons like pump action guns in phased manner to deal with infiltrators and smugglers.
Sources said that with the improvement of relation between India and Bangladesh, the relation between the border guarding forces of both the countries also improved considerably and no incident of exchange of fire took place in the Assam-Meghalaya sector of the international border this year. The last incident of exchange of fire between the forces in this sector took place way back in June , 2010. The BSF had some problems with one particular battalion of the BGB and that has already been shifted elsewhere.
Meanwhile, security sources said that some camps of the militants of the North East still exist in Chittagong and Rangamati areas but the Government of the neighbouring country has also been making efforts to death with the militants. Most of the camps are located in jungles near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border areas.
