Friction aside, BSF to train BDR personnel

Setting aside the hostility that followed the brutal killing of BSF Deputy Commandant Jeevan Kumar in June and the recent exchange of fire i...

Setting aside the hostility that followed the brutal killing of BSF Deputy Commandant Jeevan Kumar in June and the recent exchange of fire in the Malda sector, BSF is set to train personnel of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on border management and border policing.

BSF Director-General R.S. Mooshahary, who will be leading the Indian delegation at the DG level talks between the two countries that begins in New Delhi from September 26, said the government would accept BDR’s request. Exchanging of training facilities, he said, would ‘‘increase cooperation’’ between the two forces and that the step was a good ‘‘confidence-building measure’’.

The request to train BDR personnel comes at a time when relations between the two border guarding forces have deteriorated considerably. Besides the killing of Jeevan Kumar, BDR had carried on unprovoked firing along the border in the Malda sector last month. It has also continued to oppose border fencing within 150 yards of the international border.

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The BSF, however, is expected to make a strong case of Jeevan Kumar’s killing at the talks. Bangladesh is yet to inform India about the findings of its inquiry into the incident though it had promised to do so.

Senior Ministry officials said the BSF will also take up the issue of unprovoked firing across the international border and will seek to strengthen the existing mechanism of platoon and company level cooperation between the two sides. The BDR has, on several occasions, failed to respond to the BSF’s calls for meetings at the company or platoon level.

Also on the agenda

• Border fencing: Bangaldesh has opposed fencing in 212 patches along the border where Indian villages stretch up to the IB. India is likely to complete fencing of the entire border by next year except these patches

• Joint patrolling: BSF wants to extend joint patrolling along the entire length of the border

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• Terror list: BSF and BDR will exchange list of terrorist camps on either state

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