Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tension along Jaintiapur border
Utilise the existing guidelines fully for border management
NEWS of Bangladeshi civilians falling victims of firing by some Indian civilians is distressing. Ten Bangladeshis have sustained injuries from fire resorted to by a group of Indian tribesmen at Jaintiapur in Sylhet on 4th July. It is alarming that the Indian nationals trespassed into Bangladesh territory and carried out the firing.
Reportedly, these people were supported by the BSF. The locals inside Bangladesh eventually chased the intruders out of our territory, and they must have felt agitated enough to have expressed their resentment at the apparent 'inaction' of the BDR by barricading the Sylhet - Tamabil highway. The BDR 'inaction' is perhaps due to exercise of extreme restraint on their part, since retaliatory fire may have resulted in Indian civilian casualties.
The border point in Sylhet - Tamabil- Jaintiapur - Sreepur in the Sylhet sector has been restive for sometime now. And the cause has been the unprovoked BSF firing and the civilian casualties suffered on our side as a result of that. The matter has aggravated further due to trespassing and forced tilling of croplands, as much as between 100 and 200 meters inside Bangladesh, by Khasia tribesmen under cover of the BSF.
The intrusions have been repeated despite BSF assurances to prevent this happening. It is surprising that when no civilian is allowed to carry firearms inside the zero line, the Indian Khasia should enter Bangladesh territory and resort to shooting.
We have said it before, and feel it worth repeating, that such incidents do very little to engender confidence between neighbours. If anything, these unprovoked acts create bad blood and tension, something that must not be allowed to happen.
It seems strange that at a time when the highest political authority in the two countries have expressed their political will and had committed themselves to taking the bilateral relationship to a new height of goodwill and amity, such incidents should be take place at all. And when there are mechanisms in place to manage the Bangladesh-India borders, such occurrences are even more deplorable.
The issue calls for urgent re-look at the entire gamut of border management. One understands that the principal cause of such incidents is the matter of lands in adverse possession of the two countries. And the 1974 border guideline stipulates that the matter of APL should be resolved mutually.
That has not come about even after 34 years of the border guideline coming into force. And when the border Joint Working Group, set up exactly to address the border issues, has not met since 2006, it is no wonder that it is so.
Border tension between two friendly neighbours is unwarranted. And that can be prevented if the provisions of the existing guideline are fully utilised, and orders from the top permeate down to the field level. That, regrettably, is not the case at the moment.
Tension along Jaintiapur border
Utilise the existing guidelines fully for border management
NEWS of Bangladeshi civilians falling victims of firing by some Indian civilians is distressing. Ten Bangladeshis have sustained injuries from fire resorted to by a group of Indian tribesmen at Jaintiapur in Sylhet on 4th July. It is alarming that the Indian nationals trespassed into Bangladesh territory and carried out the firing.
Reportedly, these people were supported by the BSF. The locals inside Bangladesh eventually chased the intruders out of our territory, and they must have felt agitated enough to have expressed their resentment at the apparent 'inaction' of the BDR by barricading the Sylhet - Tamabil highway. The BDR 'inaction' is perhaps due to exercise of extreme restraint on their part, since retaliatory fire may have resulted in Indian civilian casualties.
The border point in Sylhet - Tamabil- Jaintiapur - Sreepur in the Sylhet sector has been restive for sometime now. And the cause has been the unprovoked BSF firing and the civilian casualties suffered on our side as a result of that. The matter has aggravated further due to trespassing and forced tilling of croplands, as much as between 100 and 200 meters inside Bangladesh, by Khasia tribesmen under cover of the BSF.
The intrusions have been repeated despite BSF assurances to prevent this happening. It is surprising that when no civilian is allowed to carry firearms inside the zero line, the Indian Khasia should enter Bangladesh territory and resort to shooting.
We have said it before, and feel it worth repeating, that such incidents do very little to engender confidence between neighbours. If anything, these unprovoked acts create bad blood and tension, something that must not be allowed to happen.
It seems strange that at a time when the highest political authority in the two countries have expressed their political will and had committed themselves to taking the bilateral relationship to a new height of goodwill and amity, such incidents should be take place at all. And when there are mechanisms in place to manage the Bangladesh-India borders, such occurrences are even more deplorable.
The issue calls for urgent re-look at the entire gamut of border management. One understands that the principal cause of such incidents is the matter of lands in adverse possession of the two countries. And the 1974 border guideline stipulates that the matter of APL should be resolved mutually.
That has not come about even after 34 years of the border guideline coming into force. And when the border Joint Working Group, set up exactly to address the border issues, has not met since 2006, it is no wonder that it is so.
Border tension between two friendly neighbours is unwarranted. And that can be prevented if the provisions of the existing guideline are fully utilised, and orders from the top permeate down to the field level. That, regrettably, is not the case at the moment.
