New Delhi:
Amid rising tensions between India and Bangladesh, a high-level delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reached New Delhi on Monday for the bi-annual Director General level talks with the Border Security Force (BSF). The bilateral talks will be held on Tuesday.
“Both India and Bangladesh have been blaming each other for tensions along the border due to trust deficit but with these talks now, efforts are being made to bridge the gap,” said a senior official adding that India is going to raise issues concerning Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh apart from recent attacks on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladeshi nationals.
According to him, issues relating to trans-border crimes and the construction of single-row fences are also going to be discussed between the two sides. “Border infrastructures need to be strengthened for forces to be able to guard better. So focus would be on effective implementation of coordinated border management plan and various confidence-building measures,” he added.
As this is the first such meeting between the two countries after the Sheikh Hasina-led government was ousted from power in August 2024, stakes are high for both border guarding forces.
“This is a bi-annual affair. These talks were slated to take place in November last year but on request of Bangladesh they were postponed,” explained an official.
The talks also gain significance as India for the last many months has been expressing concerns over the steady increase in alignment between Bangladesh’s interim government and Pakistan.
“Since the coup that saw Sheikh Hasina’s ousting in August, Bangladesh has shown increasing diplomatic warmth toward Pakistan, a shift that has raised concerns in India and has been raised by India at various platforms,” explained a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official.
India has also raised objections to rising incidents of violence against minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh, and continues to engage diplomatically to improve relations.
Intelligence inputs suggest that Bangladesh also allowed Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and military officials to visit sensitive areas near the Indian border. “The level of alertness is at an all-time high all along the border and we will also raise these issues,” said an official.
The 55th Director General-level Border Coordination Conference between the two forces will be at the BSF headquarters. The Bangladeshi delegation may also call on some senior Union Home Ministry authorities, a BSF official said.
The Indian delegation is led by BSF Director General (DG) Daljit Singh Chaudhary while the visiting Bangladeshi team is headed by BGB DG Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui. The last edition of these bi-annual talks was held in Dhaka in March last year.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,096 km-long border spanning across five states – West Bengal (2,217 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km).