The four-day director general level border conference between the Indian Border Security Force and the Border Guard Bangladesh is set to begin today in New Delhi amid tension along the border between the two neighbours over building fencing at several points by the BSF.
The Bangladesh side will once again press for stopping the killing of unarmed Bangladesh nationals along the border and abduction of its citizens and border fencing in violation of the international law at the 55th conference ending on February 20, said a BGB press release issued on Sunday.聽聽
Bangladesh will also seek to prevent smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition and other contraband items to Bangladesh from India. The BGB would also ask India to stop the displaced Rohingyas from intruding into Bangladesh territory from the Indian side.聽
The BGB would further call on its counterpart to stop constructing unapproved structures, including barbed wire fences, in the no-man鈥檚-land along the border.
At the conference, Bangladesh would promote coordinated border management and would also propose installing water treatment plants in four canals through which wastewater flows from India鈥檚 Agartala to Bangladesh鈥檚 Akhaura in Brahmanbaria.
A 13-member delegation from Bangladesh led by BGB director general Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui will attend the conference, the release said.聽
Apart from the BGB officials, representatives from the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office, home ministry, foreign ministry, Land Record and Survey Department, and Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission will also be present at the conference.聽
The Indian delegation would include, apart from the BSF officials, representatives from the central home ministry and external affairs ministry.
In mid-January, the interim government urged India to refrain from any provocative actions amid growing tensions along the border over the BSF constructing barbed wire fences, violating the international law at five points in the bordering districts of Chapainawabganj, Lalmonirhat and Naogaon, prompting both the sides to deploy additional forces on the respective sides.
On January 12, the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma to its office in Dhaka city to express its concern over India鈥檚 construction of barbed wire fences along the border and to protest at the recent killing of a Bangladesh national by the BSF in the
border area.
On January 18, Indian villagers clashed with Bangladeshis over harvesting crops on the no-man鈥檚-land along the Chowka border in Chapainawabganj, leaving three people injured.
Video footage of the clash showed the firing of teargas shells and sound grenades at the spot.
Following the incident, home affairs adviser retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on January 20 declared that they had allowed the Border Guard Bangladesh to procure non-lethal weapons like sound grenades and teargas shells.
India has already constructed barbed wire fences along 3,271 kilometres of the 4,156km border between the two neighbours, according to the Bangladesh authorities.
Border killings go unabated as at least 30 Bangladesh nationals were killed in BSF firing in 2024, according to rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra.
The ASK data also showed that 31 Bangladeshis were killed in BSF firing in 2023.
From January 2009 to November 2024, the BSF reportedly killed 588 Bangladeshis and injured 773 Bangladeshis, according to rights body Odhikar.