SHILLONG: The reign of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh has witnessed the handing over of a number of top militant leaders from the Northeast region taking shelter in the neighbouring country to the Indian authorities, but camps of a number of insurgent outfits from the NE appear to be continuing to exist on Bangladeshi soil.
At the co-ordination conference between regional commanders of the Border Security Force and the Border Guards Bangladesh in Shillong, the BSF handed over to the BGB a list of 66 active camps of insurgent groups from the NE in Bangladesh.
The four-day conference concluded on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference, IG BSF Guwahati Sudhir Kumar Srivastava said that the BGB authorities had promised to the BSF that action would be taken against camps which were still active in Bangladesh territory. The BGB, however, asked for more information on these camps from the BSF.
According to Srivastava, the BGB had also been informed about the locations of these camps. Camps of HNLC, ULFA, NDFB, PLA and a few other groups were operating in districts like Mymensingh, Maulvibazar and Rangamati.
The BSF official admitted, however, that some of the camps had now been shifted towards Myanmar due to pressure from Bangladesh authorities. The camps which were still operating in Bangladeshi soil were deep inside jungles. Often, even the GPS could not fix the locations of these camps. “The number of these camps has decreased,” he said, indicating that things had indeed improved in the last few years.
The conference was held to build mutual understanding and co-ordination between the two border guarding forces and mainly focused on common concerns of both the border guarding forces for effective border management and peace on the border.
The BSF authorities highlighted at the conference trans-border crimes committed by criminals from Bangladesh inside India, besides illegal intrusion of Bangladeshi nationals into Indian territory. BSF provided facts and figures on trans- border crimes committed by Bangladeshi nationals inside Indian territory, apprehension of Bangladeshi nationals who illegally crossed the border, seizure figure of forest products, narcotics and other contraband items.
The poaching of natural resources in India by criminals from Bangladesh, especially from the river beds, also featured during the course of the conference. Reacting to a query on the status of border fencing, the IG BSF informed that there were 13 gaps along the fencing which could not be completed due to its riverine nature and other logistical problems. “Unfenced patches are a concern for us,” he said, while adding that the Bangladesh Government had allowed the construction of single-line fencing along the border.
Bangladesh has been complaining for some time about the increasing number of killings of Bangladeshi nationals at the border. According to a BSF press release, the BGB authorities raised at the meeting the issue of “firing on and killing of unarmed Bangladeshi nationals by Indian nationals”. The allegations had been investigated into. “They had been fired upon by local villagers when criminals from Bangladesh had illegally entered into Indian territory at night,” the BSF said.