Dhaka, Sep 10 (Just News): Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has denied seeking personal gains from their Indian counterpart Border Security Force (BSF) during a joint meeting held earlier this month.
BBC Bangla has reported that BGB had in agenda higher education for their children and India tours for their wives during the meeting held through September 3 to 8.
Md Shafeenul Islam, director general of BGB, trashed the report and said it was “utterly baseless” when reporters inquired about it at a press briefing at Peelkhana today.
“The agenda of our meeting, what the two countries decided jointly, was made public,” he told the press briefing held at BGB headquarter.
However, a September 2 press release of BSF, obtained from their website, states that an agenda of BGB was ‘Confidence building measures’ which included 12 such measures.
Among them were ‘Higher Studies in India for BGB wards’, ‘Inter-Shooting Competition’, ‘Visit of BWWA/SHIPKS delegation’, and ‘Visit of School Children’.
Other points in the agenda spanned around trans-border crimes, smuggling of drugs and narcotic, arrest or apprehension of Bangladeshis by BSF, construction of viewers’ gallery and other facilities for joint retreat ceremony, and expansion of crime-free zones.
From the BSF side, the agenda included prevention of attacks on BSF troopers, curbing trans-border crimes, Indian insurgent groups, border infrastructure, comprehensive border management plan, and confidence building measures.
The last press release obtained from BSF website, on September 7, said “both BGB and BSF appreciated the efforts made to improve mutual relations through various agreed-upon confidence building measures”.
(Justnews/ys/1630hr)
