India, Bangladesh DG-level talks to begin tomorrow

New Delhi: With the historic exchange of enclaves along the India-Bangladesh border accomplished, high-level delegations of both the country's border guarding forces will commence their annual DG level bilateral talks here beginning tomorrow.

A 22-member delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will sit across the table with their counterparts Border Security Force (BSF) for their four-day annual Director General level talks on a host of border issues at the paramilitary forces' headquarter here.

The visit assumes significance as this is the first official Bangladeshi team to arrive in Delhi after the historic Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) has been conducted with the exchanges happening between the two countries.

The BGB delegation, set to arrive here today, is led by BGB DG Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed while the BSF side will be headed by BSF DG D K Pathak with representatives from Ministry of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Survey of India, NIA and other law enforcement agencies.

The two sides will sign a joint declaration on August 6, a day before the Bangladeshi delegation leaves for Dhaka.

The BSF said the two sides are expected to discuss issues related to trans-border crimes including instances of cattle smuggling, illegal movement of fake Indian currency, activities of Indian insurgent groups based in Bangladesh, prevention of illegal migration, joint efforts for effective implementation of common agenda programmes and host of other confidence building measures.

"The emerging border scenario after the LBA will also be discussed," a senior official said.

At the stroke of Friday mid-night, 51,000 stateless people of India and Bangladesh attained freedom when the two countries ended decades of their lingering wait for citizenship by exchanging 162 adversely-held enclaves between them.