Indo-Bangla border level talks underway in Guwahati

By Sumi Khan Dhaka, Dec 22 : The 51st round of the Director-General level border coordination meeting between India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) was underway on Tuesday in Guwahati, Assam.
BGB PRO Mohammad Shariful Islam told IANS that the five-day talks will include discussions on border related issues aimed at enabling better coordination between the two border guarding forces, with a special focus on addressing and streamlining mechanisms on how to jointly curb various trans-border crimes and timely sharing of information.
While a 12-member Indian delegation is being represented by BSF Director General Rakesh Asthana, BGB Director General Major General Md Shafeenul Islam is heading the 11-member Bangladesh delegation at the routine border conference.
Islam added that concerned officials from the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office, Home Affairs Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry and senior BGB officials will represent the Bangladesh delegation in the conference, while senior officials of BSF headquarters, frontier IGs and concerned officials of the Indian Home Affairs Ministry and External Affairs Ministry will represent the BSF delegation.
The last BSF-BGB border Coordination Conference was held from September 16-19 in Dhaka.
In 1975, the two sides envisaged that there should be frequent contacts between the border authorities to discuss the matters of immediate administrative concerns.