New Delhi:

Amid rising tensions between India and Bangladesh, a high-level delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reached New Delhi on Monday for the bi-annual Director General level talks with the Border Security Force (BSF). The bilateral talks will be held on Tuesday.

“Both India and Bangladesh have been blaming each other for tensions along the border due to trust deficit but with these talks now, efforts are being made to bridge the gap,” said a senior official adding that India is going to raise issues concerning Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh apart from recent attacks on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladeshi nationals.

According to him, issues relating to trans-border crimes and the construction of single-row fences are also going to be discussed between the two sides. “Border infrastructures need to be strengthened for forces to be able to guard better. So focus would be on effective implementation of coordinated border management plan and various confidence-building measures,” he added.

As this is the first such meeting between the two countries after the Sheikh Hasina-led government was ousted from power in August 2024, stakes are high for both border guarding forces.

“This is a bi-annual affair. These talks were slated to take place in November last year but on request of Bangladesh they were postponed,” explained an official.

The talks also gain significance as India for the last many months has been expressing concerns over the steady increase in alignment between Bangladesh’s interim government and Pakistan.

“Since the coup that saw Sheikh Hasina’s ousting in August, Bangladesh has shown increasing diplomatic warmth toward Pakistan, a shift that has raised concerns in India and has been raised by India at various platforms,” explained a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official.

India has also raised objections to rising incidents of violence against minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh, and continues to engage diplomatically to improve relations.

Intelligence inputs suggest that Bangladesh also allowed Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and military officials to visit sensitive areas near the Indian border. “The level of alertness is at an all-time high all along the border and we will also raise these issues,” said an official.

The 55th Director General-level Border Coordination Conference between the two forces will be at the BSF headquarters. The Bangladeshi delegation may also call on some senior Union Home Ministry authorities, a BSF official said.

The Indian delegation is led by BSF Director General (DG) Daljit Singh Chaudhary while the visiting Bangladeshi team is headed by BGB DG Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui. The last edition of these bi-annual talks was held in Dhaka in March last year.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,096 km-long border spanning across five states – West Bengal (2,217 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km).

New Delhi:

Amid rising tensions between India and Bangladesh, a high-level delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reached New Delhi on Monday for the bi-annual Director General level talks with the Border Security Force (BSF). The bilateral talks will be held on Tuesday.

“Both India and Bangladesh have been blaming each other for tensions along the border due to trust deficit but with these talks now, efforts are being made to bridge the gap,” said a senior official adding that India is going to raise issues concerning Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh apart from recent attacks on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladeshi nationals.

According to him, issues relating to trans-border crimes and the construction of single-row fences are also going to be discussed between the two sides. “Border infrastructures need to be strengthened for forces to be able to guard better. So focus would be on effective implementation of coordinated border management plan and various confidence-building measures,” he added.

As this is the first such meeting between the two countries after the Sheikh Hasina-led government was ousted from power in August 2024, stakes are high for both border guarding forces.

“This is a bi-annual affair. These talks were slated to take place in November last year but on request of Bangladesh they were postponed,” explained an official.

The talks also gain significance as India for the last many months has been expressing concerns over the steady increase in alignment between Bangladesh’s interim government and Pakistan.

“Since the coup that saw Sheikh Hasina’s ousting in August, Bangladesh has shown increasing diplomatic warmth toward Pakistan, a shift that has raised concerns in India and has been raised by India at various platforms,” explained a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official.

India has also raised objections to rising incidents of violence against minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh, and continues to engage diplomatically to improve relations.

Intelligence inputs suggest that Bangladesh also allowed Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and military officials to visit sensitive areas near the Indian border. “The level of alertness is at an all-time high all along the border and we will also raise these issues,” said an official.

The 55th Director General-level Border Coordination Conference between the two forces will be at the BSF headquarters. The Bangladeshi delegation may also call on some senior Union Home Ministry authorities, a BSF official said.

The Indian delegation is led by BSF Director General (DG) Daljit Singh Chaudhary while the visiting Bangladeshi team is headed by BGB DG Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui. The last edition of these bi-annual talks was held in Dhaka in March last year.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,096 km-long border spanning across five states – West Bengal (2,217 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km).

New Delhi:

The border forces of India and Bangladesh will hold their bi-annual talks in Delhi next week with issues such as border fence construction and attacks on BSF personnel and civilians by Bangladeshi criminals figuring among the discussion points, an official statement said on Friday.

The 55th Director General-Level Border Coordination Conference between BSF and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will be organised at the Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters here between February 17-20 February.

This would be the first top-level meeting between the two sides after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August last year.

The Indian side will be led by BSF Director General (DG) Daljit Singh Chawdhary while the BGB delegation will be headed by Maj General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui.

The conference is being organised to discuss border-related issues and for better coordination between both the border guarding forces, the BSF said in a statement.

Discussions will be held on prevention of attack/assault on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladesh-based criminals/nationals, how to prevent trans-border crimes, construction of single row fence, action against Indian Insurgent Groups in Bangladesh, issues related to border infrastructure, joint efforts for effective implementation of Coordinated Border Management Plan, Confidence Building Measures and other issues.

The last edition of these bi-annual talks was held in Dhaka in March last year.

The 4,096 km long India-Bangladesh boundary spans across five states — West Bengal (2,217 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km). The BSF is designated as the lead security and intelligence-gathering agency for this front.

The ties between the two countries came under strain after the neighbours summoned each other’s high commissioners in December last year.

While Bangladesh expressed to the Indian high commissioner its concern over the “activities” of the BSF vis-a-vis fence erection and border killings, India made it clear to the acting Bangladeshi high commissioner in Delhi that all laid down protocols were being followed while constructing the fence.

The government also informed Parliament in the Budget session that India has conveyed to Bangladesh that it expects a cooperative approach from the neighbouring country for combating cross-border crimes and this includes the border fencing work.

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in Parliament that the unfenced part of this front was 864.482 km, which includes 174.51 km of “non-feasible” gap.

“Construction of fence is an important measure for securing the border. Fencing helps to ensure a crime-free border by effectively addressing the challenges of cross-border criminal activities, smuggling, movement of criminals and trafficking,” Rai said.

He added the challenges faced in completing the “feasible” stretches of fencing projects relate to land acquisition, BGB objections, limited working season and landslide/marshy land.

The BSF last month said its “strong objection” led to the stopping of “illegal” construction by Bangladeshi citizens and its frontier force along the International Border in West Bengal, a phenomenon it said was “increasing” in recent times.

According to sources who spoke to PTI, the Indian side is expected to put across instances of spiked infiltration attempts by Bangladeshi nationals across this front after August last year.

These instances are linked to human trafficking and cross-border smuggling, the sources said earlier.

Bangladesh’s interim government had recently said in Dhaka that it would seek to scrap some “uneven agreements” on borders with India during the meeting of the directors general of the border guards of the two countries to be held between February 17-20.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)