Fatalities along border will be ‘made to reduce significantly’, BSF DG tells Bangladesh

BSF Director General Rakesh Asthana said on Saturday that instances of firing along the India-Bangladesh international border will be “made to reduce significantly”. Appointed to the post in August of this year, DG Asthana maintained that BSF jawans only fire in self-defence.

While addressing his counterparts Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Dhaka on the last day of the four-day bi-annual talks, the BSF chief said apprehension or deaths of criminals along the border are irrespective of nationalities. This was the 50th DG level-meeting between Indian and Bangladesh while the next one is slated to take place in India.

“BSF personnel fire with non-lethal weapons only in self-defence when they are surrounded by a large number of miscreants armed with ‘dah’ (cleaver-shaped knife), sticks etc, and their lives are endangered,” BSF DG Rakesh Asthana told his Bangladeshi counterpart Maj General Shafeenul Islam.

A spokesperson for the BSF said that the director-general also told his Bangladeshi counterparts that both sides need to take precautionary measures to uphold human rights and restrict violence on the border. For this purpose, DG Asthana proposed socio-economic development programs, public awareness initiatives and real-time information sharing.

The two sides also discussed an SOP for mentally challenged Indian nationals crossing into Bangladesh as part of confidence-building measures (CBMs).

During the bi-annual talks, India’s BSF and Bangladeshi BGB also decided to share information either through formal or informal channels to curb cross-border smuggling of narcotics, fake Indian currency notes, cattle, arms, explosives along with human trafficking and activities of Indian Insurgent groups (IIGs).

All agreed CBMs will be resumed once normalcy returns post the Covid-19 pandemic, a statement from BSF added.

(With inputs from PTI)