SHILLONG: The BGB Additional Director General, Md Zakir Hossain, has denied the presence of any Indian insurgent group operating out of the neighbouring country.
Talking to media persons after the Inspector General-Region Commanders conference between BSF and BGB concluded here on Friday, Hossain said, “We assure that there is no presence or movement of any Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh.”
He said that even the Bangladesh Prime Minister has time and again reiterated that the country’s soil will not be allowed to be used by any entity which can be hostile to any third country.
When asked about the Bangladeshi extremist groups operating in India, he said that non-actors like them do have trans-border movement. Cross-border militancy from Bangladesh and smuggling of narcotics and drugs to that country from India were discussed in detail during the four-day IG BSF and Region Commanders, Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) level talks.
The Meghalaya frontier Inspector General, Kuldeep Saini, said that the menace of drugs was discussed in detail and that there are some syndicates involved in smuggling of drugs and other narcotic items.
Talking about the illegal crossing of nationals from both the countries, Hossain said that the matter was discussed in detail during the conference and both the forces have agreed to work jointly to keep the border free and for which special measures are also being taken from both the sides in this regard.
On the issue of cattle smuggling, Saini said that it keeps fluctuating and it is more during festivals even as he informed that the BSF at present has to look after around 430 cattle which were seized while being smuggled.
Hossain too maintained that cattle smuggling is one of the areas for trans border crime and BGB has taken adequate measures to prevent cattle smuggling and added that apart from cattle smugglers of Bangladesh, there are syndicates in India too who are involved in the trade.
“We have jointly identified the areas and have agreed to prevent cattle smuggling,” he said.
Both the forces also discussed about management of the Indo-Bangla border as around 100 kilometers of it in Meghalaya is yet to be fenced.
Saini admitted that it is a huge challenge to man the unfenced border but said both the forces are doing joint patrolling of the areas where there are fences.
Meanwhile, on the recent arrest of Nigerian citizens who flew to Bangladesh and crossed over to India via Tripura, Saini said that there have been such instances and perpetrators are apprehended, and necessary intelligence are shared with the BGB and both the forces are working in close coordination.
