Bangladesh border guards to tighten vigil along frontier

The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) would further tighten vigil along the India-Bangladesh border to check activities of the Indian militants, a Border Security Force (BSF) official said here Monday.

Officials of the BSF and BGB met in Ramgarh, under Khagrachari district in southeast Bangladesh, on Saturday and decided on some strategies to further strengthen the security along the border to curb the activities of the northeast India militants.

"BGB officials requested BSF for permission to use Indian roads for establishing new border outposts (BOPs) of BGB in the Chittagong hill tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. BSF officials assured BGB of full cooperation," BSF spokesman D.S. Bhati told IANS.

He said: "The proposed BGB BOPs in the mountainous CHT would help in containing terrorism in the northeastern states since most of the camps of Indian insurgents groups, including Tripura militant outfits, are located in CHT."

The official said that during the meeting, intensification of border security in view of the May 3 election to the Tripura autonomous district council was stressed.

"Both sides agreed to increase vigil along the bordering areas to thwart any attempt by the militants and other inimical elements to disrupt the election. Besides, emphasis was also given to curb trans-border crimes and smuggling," Bhati added.

BSF Inspector General for Tripura frontier B.N. Sharma led the Indian delegation and the Bangladesh delegation was headed by Brigadier General Mohammad Habibul Karim, region commander of the BGB's southeast Chittagong region.

Tripura shares 856-km border with Bangladesh and some parts of the borders are still unfenced. The mountainous terrain, dense forests and other hindrances make the borders porous and vulnerable, enabling illegal immigrants and intruders cross over without any hurdle.