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Indo-Bangla talks on border issues

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA April 28. A four-day India-Bangladesh border conference began here today to resolve sensitive bilateral issues such as deportation through push-in which has been causing intermittent frontier tensions.

The meeting between the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and the Border Security Force (BSF) of India is being held at the BDR Headquarters here with the entire load of problems related to the common frontier on the table, officials said.

Sources said that Bangladesh put forth its complaint that the Indian side had tried at least 57 times to push 5,000 people into Bangladesh, creating tension in the border areas during January-March this year.

Fifteen persons were killed and many injured by BSF personnel, triggering serious concern among the border villagers, Dhaka alleged.

India also raised several issues, and both sides felt that intensified "coordination and cooperation" was the best remedy. This is the third Directors-General-level meeting between the two forces during the present Khaleda Zia regime.

The Director-General of BDR, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, is leading the Bangladesh side while the BSF Director-General, Ajoy Raj Sharma, is heading the Indian team. Meanwhile, BDR jawans reportedly pushed back four `Indian nationals' at the Gangarhat border of Phulbari upazila in northern Lalmonirhat on Sunday. The BSF at the Urusha border had earlier in the day ``pushed these people into Bangladesh''. A tense situation was prevailing in border villages in the area following the incident, local correspondents reported.

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