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India-Bangladesh Talks:POROUS BORDER ISSUE UNRESOLVED, by Monish Tourangbam,2 September 2008 Print E-mail

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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