All kinds of unequal agreements related to the border with India will be discussed, said Home Affairs Advisor Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.).
The advisor said this while briefing reporters after the preparatory inter-ministerial meeting on the occasion of the 55th BGB-BSF Director General-level border conference to be held in New Delhi, India from February 17-20, 2025, at the meeting room of the Home Ministry at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon.
The advisor said that in 2011, an unequal agreement was reached with India regarding the three bighas and Dahagram corridors of Bangladesh. Moreover, the Kulaura railway station of the Mahishasana (India)-Kulaura (Bangladesh) inter-state railway is located about three kilometers inside the border. We will not allow them to come within three kilometers of our border. There will be a proposal to build an immigration check post along with customs near the border.
Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd.) said, if any work is done within 150 yards of the border, permission from both sides is required. There is no rule to do these things unilaterally. If a mosque or temple is built for development, consent from both countries is required. If anything is done in the future, importance will be given to ensuring that they consent.
When asked by journalists whether Bangladesh will make any concessions to increase trust in relations with India, the advisor said, trust cannot be increased only by concessions. Trust can also be increased through discussions. He said, Indians often prepare various drugs including phensidyl in the border areas and smuggle them into our country. Although they say that phensidyl is being prepared as medicine, in fact it is being used as a drug. He also said that the meeting will also discuss stopping the spread of false news in the Indian media and social media. Our media and the people of the country are very vocal about this.
In the 55th BGB-BSF border conference to be held at the Director General level, the following issues were discussed: Stop border killing/shooting or injuring unarmed Bangladeshi citizens at the border by BSF or Indian nationals/Indian miscreants; Stop abduction or detention of Bangladeshi citizens by BSF or Indian nationals; Stop border violation or illegal crossing or infiltration by BSF or Indian nationals; Prevent smuggling of various types of illegal drugs, arms and ammunition and explosives including Yaba and Phencidyl from India to Bangladesh; Establish water treatment plants in four canals that flow waste water from Agartala to Akhaura; Balanced distribution of water of rivers along the Bangladesh-India border, extraction of water from the rivers, implementation of water agreement and reopening of the mouth of Rahimpur canal; Delimitation of the disputed Muhurir Char area, delimitation of the border by installing border pillars in different areas; Effective implementation of the ‘Effective Integrated Border Management Plan’ for border management and resolution of border related issues; Discussions will be held on various initiatives aimed at increasing mutual trust and goodwill between the two countries.
