India, B'desh agree to share information on organised criminal activities

India and Bangladesh have agreed to take effective steps to prevent human trafficking and illegal crossing and share information on organised criminal activities and increased surveillance in areas vulnerable to crimes on the border.

This was decided during a four-day meeting of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Dhaka.

The use of non-lethal weapons by the Indian border guards significantly reduced casualties on frontiers with Bangladesh, BSF chief K K Sharma said as his counterpart in BGB Major General Shafeenul Islam expressed concerns about killings on borders.

Speaking at a media briefing today, Sharma said that there was no report of killing of any Bangladeshi nationals in BSF gunshots along the borders since January this year.

"We will try to keep the situation like this all over the year...We are very careful about any violation of human rights along the Bangladesh border." the BSF director general said at the news briefing at BGB's Pilkhana Headquarters in Dhaka.

"We are very eager and active to bring the number of border killing down to zero.

Sharma, however, said the policy to use non-lethal weapons often made the BSF vulnerable to miscreant attacks.

Officials familiar with the talks said the BGB, however, expressed grave concern on the incidents of firing and killing of Bangladeshi nationals and emphasised the need for bringing the death toll to zero through exercising extreme caution by the BSF and sensitising Indian nationals living along the border.

A joint press release later said both sides agreed to take effective steps to prevent human trafficking and illegal crossing and share information regarding organised criminal activities and increased surveillance in areas vulnerable to crimes on the border.