India gives list of terror camps to Bangladesh

Kolkata: The Border Security Force (BSF) has given a list of terrorist camps operational in Bangladesh to its counterpart, the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), asking them to find and dismantle them, a top BSF officer said Friday.

“We have given the BGB a list of terrorist camps operational in Bangladesh and asked them to find and dismantle them. The terrorist groups which are proactive in the northeastern part of the country include the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), among others,” said BSF Director General, Raman Srivastava.

Srivastava returned to the city Friday after leading a 21-member delegation to Dhaka for the bi-annual conference with the BGB.

He said the BSF hoped to bring down the killing of unarmed Bangladeshi nationals across the border.

“One of the major issues discussed was the killings across the border. We have assured them and hope that we can bring down the figure to zero. After our personnel have been armed with non-lethal weapons, the killings have come down drastically.”

Srivastava said the number of people killed by the BSF across border was 55 in 2009 which came down to 32 in 2010. In the current year, seven people have been killed so far.

However, the number of injuries to BSF personnel increased after they were armed with the non-lethal weapons.

“The criminals across the border are now emboldened as now they know the BSF would not kill them, so the injuries have increased. In 2010, 57 personnel were injured while in the current year, the number of injured is already 71. This surely is a matter of concern and we are looking into it,” said Srivastava.

Joint patrolling of the border would soon materialize as the formalities have been completed, he added.

The BSF and the BGB man a 4,096 km border, of which 6.1 km has not been demarcated.