55 camps of NE armed groups in Bangladesh

India and Bangladesh to discuss terrorism and border crimes

Agartala, November 12 : Arms and drug smuggling, terrorism, circulation of fake currency notes and border crimes are among the issues to be discussed when border guards of India and Bangladesh meeting Nov 17, an official said here Monday.

“The BSF (Border Security Force) officials would ask the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) officials to dismantle the camps of northeast India terrorists, who have been running many camps in Bangladesh despite many such camps were destroyed by the security forces of that country,” a senior BSF official told IANS.

He said: “At least 55 camps of northeast India militants are still functional in different parts of Bangladesh and opposite to Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam’s borders with that country.” The northeast militant outfits running camps in Bangladesh territories include National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), United Liberation Front of Asom and National Liberation Front of Tripura.

“After Bangladesh security forces undertook occasional crackdowns against the northeast India militants, some terrorists have taken shelter in the jungles of neighbouring Myanmar,” the BSF official said on the condition of anonymity.

Inspector generals of three frontiers of BSF in northeast India - Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram-Cachar - would hold a four-day long border management meeting from Nov 17 with BGB officials at Tamabil in Bangladesh’s Sylhet district.

Meghalaya frontier Inspector General of BSF Sudhesh Kumar would lead the Indian team while Bangladesh delegation would be led by BGB’s Additional Director General (northeastern region) Mohammad Latiful Haider.

Senior officials of India’s home ministry and Narcotics Control Bureau would also present in the meeting. “Smuggling of arms and drugs and using northeastern states as corridors for their illegal hauling would also be discussed in the meeting. We would ask the BGB officials to take stringent steps to prevent such clandestine trading,” the BSF official added.

He said the BSF and BGB troopers are now holding coordinated patrolling along the border and the meeting would discuss about intensifying such joint patrolling in the sensitive and porous borders.

“Bangladesh security forces in the recent past have seized huge fake Indian currencies and arrested a large number of people involved in circulating the fake currencies. We would ask the BGB officials to share the information (with BSF) gathered about the fake currencies and their roots,” the official added.

In the meeting, the BSF would also propose to the BGB to hold mutual cultural and sports events on both sides of the border and adjoining cities and villages as part of the confidence building measures. The official said that the BSF would also ask their BGB authorities to take effective measures to prevent attacks on BSF troopers and Indian villagers by the bordering people of Bangladesh.

Four Indian northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share an 1,880-km border with Bangladesh. The mountainous terrain, dense forests and other hindrances make the unfenced borders porous and vulnerable, enabling illegal immigrants and intruders cross over without any hurdle.

India is erecting a fence and putting up floodlights all along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram to check trans-border movement of militants, prevent infiltration and check border crimes.