Border Guard Bangladesh’s capacity to be improved
The people, who work at offices, factories, get one or two-day holiday every week and during that time they get to relax or spend time with their family. Some just hang out with friends. More or less this is the normal scenario. But this does not apply to the soldiers and officers of Border Guard Bangladesh, otherwise known as BGB.
No matter whether it is a weekly off-day or national holiday, they are standing to protect our country, our border, our land, us! Starting from the birth of Bangladesh till now, BGB has been a great asset for our country. Though the history of this force in far stretched.
Let’s just turn the page of our history a little bit. During the liberation war, BGB was known as East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and around 12,500 EPR soldiers fought for the freedom of our country. 8,274 soldiers lost their lives to liberate the homeland. Among them, Lance Nayek Nur Mohammad Sheikh and Lance Nayek Munshi Abdur Rauf attained the ‘Bir Shreshtha’ rank for their bravery. After the independence, BGB always stood beside us in any kind of situations. Besides this, everyday they are working against human or drug trafficking, border terrorism or any other unrest in the border areas.
Md Shafeenul Islam, ndc, psc is the current DG of Border Guard Bangladesh. He took the office in March 2018 and from the first day; he is working hard to make the force more efficient, more energetic, and more professional. In last eight months, General Shafeenul Islam has visited almost all the remote bordering areas. He is assisting the government with his skillful handling of Rohingya issues as well.
The Awami League led government has taken the decision to purchase 2 MI-171E helicopters for BGB. Previously BGB only operated on land and water. But with this purchase they’ll also operate in the air. The helicopters will be bought from Russia as a government-to-government (G2G) deal and will cost around 355.10 crore Taka each. These helicopters will strengthen the capability of BGB, as they will able to fly and operate under any kind of situation. There is also ground proximity warning system (GPWS) technology, through which the helicopters will be able to avoid any kind of unwanted occurring. These can carry 26 passengers and transport around 4,000kg of goods. Among the 154 border outposts, 78 are helipad-supported. Saying all that, these 2 helicopters will increase the effectiveness of BGB to a great extent.
Not only this, PM Sheikh Hasina has also told that the government has plan to establish efficient training centers, more BGB sectors, trained dogs and 10 more battalions. She also talked about establishing two river battalions. One is near Naf River and the other one is near Sunderbans forest. To improve the border surveillance, there is also a plan to form battalions in every 75 kilometers in the border area and one BOP in every 5 kilometers.
13 procurement proposals, which all combined add up to Tk 4,552 crore, were approved by the cabinet committee recently. Along with the purchase of two helicopters many other proposals were included in this budget. Construction of building for the BGB personnel both in Dhaka and in Chottogram was one of them.
All of these have been done only to improve the efficiency of BGB.
Information relating to Border Guard Bangladesh in the wikepedia page
Full Profile of Major General Shafeenul Islam: Shafeenul Islam