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which have now led to the disputes over barbed wire fencing at 160 locations.

He stressed that these challenges stemmed from written permissions granted by the previous government. “These permissions should not have been issued.”

He also said, “A major problem arises from the written assurances that allowed India to carry out certain activities. One of the significant issues pertains to the Tin Bigha Corridor.”

Under the 1974 agreement, he said, Bangladesh handed over Berubari to India after parliamentary ratification. In return, India was supposed to provide Bangladesh with access to the Tin Bigha Corridor, but it failed to fulfil this commitment.

“They would open the corridor for an hour and then close it for another hour. Later, in 2010, a new agreement was signed to keep the corridor open for 24 hours. However, this [2010] agreement also allowed India to construct a border fence on the zero line at Angarpota.

“Now we face challenges in opposing this construction as Bangladesh signed this agreement.”

At the meeting with Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma, Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin expressed serious concerns over BSF’s recent activities along the border.

He called upon the Indian government to advise all authorities concerned there to refrain from any provocative activities that could stoke tensions along the shared border.

He hoped the matter would be discussed at length in the upcoming BGB-BSF DG-level talks.

After the meeting, Pranay Verma told journalists they discussed New Delhi’s commitment to ensuring a crime-free border, effectively addressing the challenges of smuggling, movements of criminals and trafficking.

“We have an understanding with regard to fencing the border for security, the two border forces -- BSF and BGB -- have been in communication.

“We expect that the understanding will be implemented and there would be a cooperative approach to combatting crimes along the border.”

At the meeting, Jashim Uddin also referred to the recent killing of a Bangladesh citizen by BSF in Sunamganj and expressed concern and disappointment over such persistent border killings despite repeated commitments from the Indian authorities to pursue a non-lethal strategy to stop killings.

He strongly called for urgent action by India to stop recurrence of such incidents; conduct enquiries into all the border killings; and take action against those responsible.

Jashim Uddin added that Bangladesh believes such issues should be resolved through constructive dialogues, in accordance with existing bilateral agreements, and in a way that upholds peace and tranquility along the border.