North East News Agency

The Centre has once again claimed Pakistan’s ISI was training Indian and Bangladeshi terrorist groups in the country. Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said that ISI was also coordinating activities of Pakistani and Bangladesh-based terrorist groups.

However, the Minister assured that Government of India has already taken adequate steps to thwart the subversive plans of the terrorists. He further revealed that the Centre is constantly analysing the situation to meet new challenges.

Meanwhile, the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh has not taken place yet owing to a standoff. There are 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 belonging to the country in India. The two sides had agreed to exchange the enclaves according to the Land Boundary Agreement of 1974.

Two joint Boundary Working Groups was constituted and two meetings took place. India requested for a joint survey of the enclaves since the Land Boundary Agreement envisaged that the people in the areas to be transferred would be given a choice of citizenship, said Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahmed in the Lok Sabha.

The Bangladesh position was that all necessary procedures for the exchange had been completed in accordance with Agreement and that there was no constitutional or legal barrier to the exchange. The Bangladesh side considered conducting census in the enclaves extraneous to the provisions of the Agreement by maintaining that survey was not a pre-condition to the exchange, he added.

In April 2003, in a Foreign Office Consultation, Bangladesh agreed for a joint census and survey provided they were carried out within a reasonable time frame. India conveyed that the total number of man-days required to complete the job was 1600 with 13 teams. In October last year during the Home Secretary level talks, Bangladesh agreed to hold the meetings of Joint Border Working Group. Dates are being worked out.

Meanwhile, a new strategy jointly involving the army and civil administration is being formulated to combat lingering insurgencies in the  North-East. A five-day closed-door workshop organised by the National Security Council Secretariat is on here to formulate such a policy. It is the first of its kind and has drawn army, paramilitary and civil officials from eight states. “Technological modernization and training in tackling new dimensions to national security, including economic security, cyber security, energy security, container security, must get their due attention,” Deputy National Security Advisor V.K. Nambiar told the participants. He said joint efforts and coordinated functioning were keys to meeting the challenges to national security.

After inaugurating the workshop Monday, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said it would provide a forum to highlight important issues that would impinge not only the security of the region but internal and external security threats. He informed that  a number of initiatives had been taken for tribal areas.

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