The crucial border talks between Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and Border Security Force (BSF) of India (BSF), scheduled to start on Sunday, was postponed indefinitely.
The meeting was scheduled to be held in Dhaka from September 13 to 18.
BGB officials said that they were informed by the BSF that they wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting as the aircraft that was supposed to carry the BSF delegation to Dhaka encountered technical glitch.
Regular flights between India and Bangladesh will remain suspended due to coronavirus pandemic until September 30.
However, the meeting has not been rescheduled yet, official said, indicating that it might get deferred for an indefinite period.
In the wake of the rise in border killing, the BGB-BSF talks were considered to be a crucial one as the diplomatic circle of both the countries were expecting that important measures would be taken in the meeting.
Border killing and fencing and counter-terrorism were the key agenda of the meeting.
Recently, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen said that the border killing recorded a rise in the first half of this year and Bangladesh raised the concern over it during the foreign secretary-level meetings last month when India's top diplomat made a surprise visit to Bangladesh.
"Indian foreign secretary assured us that he will personally talk to the head of the BSF to take due measures to stop such killings" the foreign secretary added.
BGB planned to discuss the issue of border fencing also. After a pause, the Indian state of Tripura has recently started the barbed wire fencing in unfenced areas of international border with Bangladesh, even in the border curfew imposed along the 856 km Indo-Bangla border during Covid-19 lockdown.
Bangladesh had earlier raised objections to the fencing on 11 points. According to the home ministry officials, the objection was raised as the Indian side was planning to erect the fence violating the agreement, which forbids construction of anything within 150 metres of the zero point.
