Round The World
New Delhi, 2 September 2008
India-Bangladesh
Talks
POROUS BORDER ISSUE
UNRESOLVED
By Monish Tourangbam
School of International Studies, JNU
Over
the decades, India-Bangladesh relations have been plagued by a series of border-
related issues, such as demarcation of the 6.5 km unmarked border,
implementation of the 1974 Mujib-Indira boundary agreement, drugs smuggling, trafficking
of women and children, killing of civilians along the border and cross-border
terrorism. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the recent Home Secretary
level talks between the two countries commenced with a special emphasis on
security and border management issues.
In
fact, concerns over the management of the porous India-Bangladesh border dominated
the talks held in Dhaka August-end. An
18-member Bangladeshi delegation was headed by Home Secretary, Mohammad Abdul Karim
while his Indian counterpart Madhukar Gupta led a 14-member team including
representatives of the Foreign Ministry, frontier guards and the police.
The
meetings are a part of the institutional mechanism set up in 1993 to resolve
various issues of mutual concern between the two countries, the last being held
at New Delhi in August last year. Apart from the Home Secretary level talks, meetings
at the Director General level, between the Border Security Force (BSF) and
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) are held twice a year. In fact, the two DGs met in Dhaka a week prior to the just-concluded talks.
The
Dhaka meeting sought to maintain a cooperative
and friendly atmosphere, whereby unresolved and problematic issues could be
deferred to later meetings. Both sides showed a willingness to further expand,
deepen and strengthen their bilateral cooperation. They condemned terrorism
in all its forms and manifestations and reaffirmed their commitment not to
allow their territory to be used for any activity inimical to each other's
interests.
According
to the statement issued at a joint press meet, both sides agreed to take action
against militants, insurgent outfits and their leaders on the basis of
"real time and actionable information." New Delhi
and Dhaka also agreed to
"expeditiously" hand over criminals taking shelter in each other's
territories. The secretaries also agreed that the verification process of
released prisoners of one country held in the prisons of the other should be
expedited and modalities to be worked out.
Asked
to explain the decisions on exchange of prisoners or "criminals"
hiding in each other's territory, Gupta said they intended to
"systematise" the process through treaties but "we should be
able to cooperate with each other (beforehand) even in the absence such
arrangements". Karim agreed with him, saying both the countries already
extradited several such elements already in recent months but added, "We
can't return anyone who is still in court custody". During the recent
BDR-BSF meeting, Dhaka handed over an updated list of 1,648 Bangladeshi
criminals hiding in India,
while New Delhi
gave a list of 464 Indian criminals.
Dhaka
has apparently sought cooperation to take "preventive measures against
anti-Bangladesh outfits based in India. Likewise, the Indian side has
sought Dhaka’s cooperation to trace the presence of Indian insurgent groups
allegedly based in Bangladesh."
While Karim said, "Bangladesh`s policy is not to allow its territory to be
used by anti-Indian insurgents," Gupta said, "We will inform
the Bangladesh authorities about the terrorist or anti-Bangladesh outfits in
India (and) discourage anti-Bangladesh political activities in line with our
country’s policy."
The
two representatives took a serious note of the killing of civilians at the
frontier and agreed to make concerted efforts to reduce such incidents.
"This is an issue which needed much-coordinated patrolling and intensive
communication between the two border forces ... we will be working very
seriously on that issue of casualties in borders," Gupta informed the
press. He also referred to the decision at the recently-held talks between the
BDR and BSF suggesting joint visit of vulnerable areas in the frontlines.
In
fact, the two Border Forces have signed an MoU on joint patrolling to curb
trans-border terrorism, drug smuggling, trafficking in women and children and
intrusion. They promised to observe "maximum tolerance" and resolve
any problem through discussion. In this regard, Karim said, "International
norms are there to deal with trespassers ...efforts would be made to reduce
killings in the frontiers so that things are done according to those
norms."
The
anti-India operations allegedly being orchestrated from bases in Bangladesh has
been a serious impediment to improving the Indo-Bangladeshi relations. The
effectiveness of these operations is attributable to the largescale migration across
the highly porous Indo-Bangladesh border. The ethnic affinities that cut across
the boundaries and the attractiveness of India's
liberal democratic society and its vibrant economy have
led to massive migration from neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh.
This population is exposed as prime targets for the Pakistani intelligence.
Apart from assisting insurgent groups in northeast India,
Bangladesh is being
increasingly used for smuggling ISI agents into India
through its porous borders with West Bengal, as Nepal
is used for sending them into North India,
particularly Uttar Pradesh.
Moreover,
incidents of dacoity and cattle-lifting which have been reduced considerably
continue to be a major concern to Indian villagers settled close to the porous
border. Official sources claim that of the 860-km porous border in Tripura,
over 700-km has been fenced and the remaining would be fenced soon. A senior
BSF official revealed that though the border crimes, such as smuggling,
infiltration, dacoity and cattle-lifting and movement of Indian insurgents and
members of Bangladeshi fundamentalist outfits have reduced considerably, the
measures were not completely foolproof.
The
Ministry of Home Affairs has, therefore, decided to install floodlights on the
border. On the Indian proposal of construction of a fence within 150 yards of
the border, Bangladesh
stated the matter will be further examined including joint visits to the
frontier. The two sides agreed to convene a meeting of the Joint Boundary
Working Group at an early date to discuss all outstanding boundary-related
issues.
Strongly
emphasising the need to control the menace of human trafficking, especially in
women and children and to bring the culprits to book, the two sides agreed to
enhance cooperation between the Narcotics Control Departments and meet in Delhi next month. Another
agreement reached was that both the countries would enhance cooperation towards
capacity building, including training of law enforcement agencies.
The
talks were “satisfactory” with the successful reactivation of the Joint Working
Group at the joint secretaries’ level and designation of nodal points to deal
with the issues of security and human trafficking. However, the meeting did not
make any progress on demarcation of 6.5 km of unmarked border. Moreover, India has been
pushing for an extradition treaty with the neighbouring nation, but the joint
statement issued was silent on the issue. Subsequent meetings would need to address
these concerns.--. INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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