73 Bangladesh civilians killed by Indian border guards

Official: 73 Bangladesh civilians killed by Indian border guards this year

DHAKA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain Sunday said it is unacceptable that 73 Bangladesh civilians has been killed this year by Indian border guards and he has raised this with the Indian side.

"I told my counterpart (External Affairs Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon) that India is our friendly neighbor. Such huge number of the civilians' killing is unacceptable," he told reporters here on his return from the Foreign Secretary level talks held in New Delhi on July 17.

Touhid said the Indian side recognized Dhaka's concerns and they agreed to work out a mechanism at the Home Secretary level meeting to be held here in August to stop the civilians killing along the border.

Touhid said during the talk, the two sides agreed on border rivers bank protection and a joint technical committee will meet soon to prepare a common design of the bank protection embankment.

Besides, the issues concerning the trade imbalance, sharing of waters of the common rivers, exchange of enclaves, demarcation of the maritime boundary and sharing information on terrorism and bird flu were also discussed.

In terms of the killing of two Bangladesh Rifles personnel by the Indian Border Security Force in northern border last Thursday night, Touhid said it's unwarranted and the Foreign Ministry lodged a strong protest against the incident with the Indian government.