India, Bangladesh frontier guards to discuss border issues

New Delhi: A top-level delegation of Bangladeshi border guards will arrive in New Delhi next week for five-day talks with the BSF on a host of issues related to crimes and illegal movement along the India-Bangladesh frontier. A delegation of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) led by their director general Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed will have talks with the BSF team led by their chief Subhash Joshi and representatives of the Union Home Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs.[caption id=“attachment_661069” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BSF troopers patrolling the border with Bangladesh. Reuters[/caption] The meeting will begin on 19 March. Both the forces will hold talks on a number of issues which are relevant for the security of the open India-Bangladesh border including cross-border movement of locals and criminals, smuggling of cattle and narcotics and issues related to Indian insurgents reportedly on the other side of the border. As a symbolic gesture of enhancing confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two countries, both the forces will also play a friendly volleyball match in Delhi on 16 March which will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh. “The Maitree cup volleyball match will be held on 16 March at the Thyagraj stadium here. The BSF and BGB will play a similar friendly match on March 14 in Kolkata,” the BSF said in an official statement. The DG level talks between the two border guarding forces is a bi-annual affair with each country hosting its counterpart once at its national capital. The BSF guards 4,096 km of the India-Bangladesh border. PTI