BSF-BGB meet from Sept 24

INDIA’S Border Security Force and the Border Guards Bangladesh will have interaction for four days from September 24 at Shillong.  The meeting will be held between the BSF Inspector General and the BGB Region Commanders at the BSF’s frontier headquarters at Umpling. A 12-member Bangladesh delegation led by Md Zakir Hossain, will hold the meeting with a 13-member Indian delegation headed by Kuldip Sani, Inspector General, Meghalaya Frontier, reports  The Assam Tribune. The issue of constant objection by  the BGB to the single-row fence (SRF) constructed along the Indo-Bangladesh border, 150 yards away from the Zero Line, will be discussed in the meeting.RSS officials said the fence has been constructed as per a mutually agreed protocol. However, there has been constant objection from lower level BGB officials. “This issue will be discussed at the meeting so that such objections are not raised against the SRF along the border,” a senior BSF official said.A large tract of the 443-km border in Meghalaya with Bangladesh has been fenced to check entry of Bangladeshis into India to  prevent militants from crossing over .There are, however, several patches on which the border has remained unfenced due to various reasons. In some areas, it has been unfenced as the locals in India want the fence to come up from the Zero Line and not 150 yards from the border. The other issue to be discussed are cattle smuggling into Bangladesh and issues related to drug trafficking and attacks on BSF officials by Bangladeshi nationals.