BSF, BDR agree to start joint patrolling of border

In a path-breaking development, India and Bangladesh have decided to start joint patrolling of their border against infiltrators and smugglers.

The decision, taken at the 28th India-Bangladesh Border Coordination Conference in Dhaka on Sunday, seeks to address a key source of tension between the two neighbours.

Describing the Dhaka meet “ice-breaking,’’ Border Security Force (BSF) Director General (DG) AK Mitra, who held talks with Major General Shakil Ahmed, DG, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), said, “The patrolling would be done in the most vulnerable border stretches.’’

According to the plan, the BSF and the BDR will exchange lists of infiltration-prone stretches along the 4,000-km border by the end of September.

The patrolling mechanism would be set up after that. Mitra has already handed over one such list. India had suggested a similar mechanism to Pakistan for the line of control in Jammu & Kashmir after the 1999 Kargil war. However, the two did not agree as the proposal came amid heightened tension and mutual suspicion.

Apparently in a serious mood to address their differences, the two sides also agreed to forge a joint strategy against cattle smugglers, which have been identified as the main cause of firing by the border forces of the two countries at each other.

Cattle smuggling across the border is a multi-million dollar industry — infertile cattle from North India are taken to Bangladesh though a highly organised network of smugglers.

Mitra said on an average, the BSF impounds 8,500 cattle per month. Last year’s haul was 131,000, he said. “We have realised that 90 per border firing between the two forces happens because of the smugglers,’’ Mitra said.

He admitted that the “border smugglers” were well organised and it was difficult to deal with them.