Hasina hopeful of solving border row within a year

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, JUNE 19. The Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has hoped that all existing border problems between Bangladesh and India would be solved within a year.

She told Parliament in reply to a question today that the Joint Working Group (JWG) formed to resolve all border disputes between the two neighbours has been working relentlessly to submit its recommendations in due time.

Referring to her Government's initiatives to ease the border tension, Sheikh Hasina said she spoke about the border issue with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, over telephone.

During her talks, Ms. Hasina said she had stressed on the total implementation of the Indira-Mujib Agreement of 1974 for resolving all border disputes. Mr. Vajpayee, she said, has reciprocated her feeling and laid emphasis on quick resolution of all disputes.

Sheikh Hasina told the House that during the recent official- level meeting in New Delhi, officials of both the countries agreed that the long-standing border problems could not be resolved without the joint initiatives. She informed Parliament that the first meeting of the JWG would be held in Dhaka very soon.

Recalling the origin of border disputes in 1947 during the partition of the British India, she said immediately after the emergence of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took initiatives to resolve all such disputes. Subsequently, the Indira-Mujib Agreement was signed on May 16 in 1974.

She said after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, no government took any initiative to implement the agreement and resolve the border issues. Rather, several complexities were created over the border issue, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her Government succeeded in identifying 143.5 km out of the 150 km of the disputed border lines. At present there is only 6.5 km of disputed border between Bangladesh and India, out of the total 4,000 km. There are problems over some enclaves and occupied lands, she added.

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Section  : International
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