The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma and expressed ‘deep concern’ over the activities of the BSF on the India-Bangladesh border.
This meeting has taken place amid the ongoing border dispute between the two countries.
This meeting took place just hours after Bangladesh’s allegations that India was trying to fence the border at five places between the two countries, which is a violation of the agreement between the two countries.
After this meeting, Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma said that in this meeting, India’s commitment to creating a crime-free border due to the problem of smuggling, criminal activities, and trafficking was discussed.
He says, “We have a mutual understanding about fencing the border for security reasons. BSF and BGB, the border security forces of both of us have been in constant touch on this issue.”
“We hope that this mutual understanding will be implemented and a cooperative attitude will be adopted to combat crime.”
What is the reason for the tension?
Earlier, after a meeting at the Home Ministry Secretariat in Dhaka, a press conference was called to give information about the situation on the Bangladesh-India border.
Bangladesh Home Affairs Advisor Retired Lieutenant General MD Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has said that Bangladesh will not give any place to anyone on its border.
He says that India will not be allowed to do any defense-related work within 150 yards of the zero line on the Bangladesh-India border.
He claimed that due to Bangladesh’s strictness, the BSF has been forced to stop its work on five borders of three districts.
Also read: Jharkhand: Principal accused of making students remove their shirts, know what is the whole matter
Recently tension has arisen on the border of both countries after the Bangladesh Border Guard or BGB objected to the construction of some of India’s BSF on the borders of three districts of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is protesting strongly, especially after Indian border guards started building barbed wire fences in some areas.
Which area is the border disputed?
India and Bangladesh share a very long border in West Bengal. With the change in political situation in neighboring Bangladesh, tensions are increasing on the border between the two countries.
This can be gauged from the fact that it touches five districts of the state.
Recently, many incidents have taken place on the border. Due to this, uneasiness and tension have also increased between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
Whether it is the issue of preventing infiltration or the matter of installing barbed wire on the border on the Indian side – BSF and BGB jawans have come face to face many times.
However, there have been no reports of clashes between the two security forces guarding the border so far. Still, the atmosphere remains tense in many places.
India has fenced 3271 km of the existing 4 thousand 156 km border between India and Bangladesh.
Fencing is yet to be done on 885 km of the border and BGB has strongly objected to the construction in various parts of it.
According to BBC Bangla, officials say that the main reason for Bangladesh’s objection is India’s starting construction work within 150 yards of the zero line in Chapainawabganj, Teen Bigha Corridor, Patnitala of Naugaon and Lalmonirhat.
Bangladesh feels that this should not be done according to the agreement between the two countries.
Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that four MoUs have been signed between Bangladesh and India so far.
He said, “According to Bangladesh-India Joint Border Instructions-1975, there is a clear ban on carrying out any work related to defense capabilities within 150 yards of the zero line of both the countries.” “They cannot do this without consent. They had started the work, but due to the tough stand taken by the BGB, they were forced to stop it.”
Accused Sheikh Hasina government of giving concessions to India
The Home Ministry advisor says that many unequal works have been done between 2010 and 2023 during the tenure of the previous government.
He said, “It has been decided to write a letter to India regarding the cancellation of all unilateral agreements made during the fencing of the border during the previous government.”
According to Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, India should not have done this. However, he accused the previous government of Bangladesh i.e. Sheikh Hasina’s government of giving permission to India for this.
“Fencing has been done at 160 of these places. Work is yet to be done at the other 78 places. Bangladesh’s BGB and India’s BCF have discussed these and BGB has adopted a tough stand, after which India has been forced to stop the work.
He says that according to the agreement between the two countries in the year 2010, the Teen Bigha Corridor between the two countries will remain open 24 hours a day. But now Indian officials have taken the initiative to build a barbed wire fence on the zero line.
“Due to opposition from BGB and local people, the work started by India at many places including Teen Bigha Corridor in Naugaon and Patnitla has been stopped.”
What happened on the border?
The new border management on the Indian border includes fencing with barbed wire and installing many electronic devices and modern cameras for surveillance.
Along with this, some equipment has also been installed at various places to warn the guards.
On the other hand, Bangladesh’s BGB is objecting to it at those places where the BSF has installed barbed wire fencing within 150 yards of the zero line.
Also, where there is no possibility of fencing with barbed wire due to river or any other reason, special equipment with high-power cameras is being installed for surveillance.
Meanwhile, tension has been brewing for three days over the installation of barbed wire fencing on the Bangladesh side of the Chauka border in Shibganj Upazila of Chapainawabganj.
There was no barbed wire fencing on 1,200 yards of this border, and Bangladesh’s BGB said that soil was being dug at a distance of 100 yards inside the Indian border in preparation for the fence.
Due to Bangladesh’s strong objection to this, the Indians had to stop work.
Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh in August last year and the coming to power of the current government, tension has been seen between India and Bangladesh on many issues.
This has been seen especially on the issue of ‘atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh’ and the arrest of Chinmay Krishna Das associated with ISKCON. Protests were also held against Bangladesh in Kolkata and Agartala against this incident.
