'BGB to deploy as much force as possible during nat’l polls'

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will deploy as much force as possible to maintain law and order across the country during the upcoming national elections, the director general of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said today.

"To be able to deploy as much manpower as possible during the national polls, we will keep all the training processes shut. No officials will be allowed to take leave except of emergencies, all the other workloads will be minimized," Major General Shafeenul Islam, the BGB DG told reporters at a press conference at the BGB headquarters.

"We will take all the preparations regarding this," he added.

Being asked about the unguarded areas of the border with India and arms smuggling centring the national polls, the BGB official said they have taken extra effort to tackle arms smuggling three months ago.

"We have been giving extra effort for the last three months to stop illegal arms smuggling through the border as it was the second in the list of agenda of the DG level meet with BSF," he said.

"In line with our efforts, we have also recovered 53 firearms from January to September 9," he added.

This was the first press briefing from the BGB chief after the BGB-BSF conference in India from September 3-8.

The BGB chief also briefed the media about the outcome of the DG level conference in New Delhi.

During the conference, "fruitful discussions" took place regarding killings on the border, firearms and drugs smuggling, increasing the area of crime free zone and other important issues, the DG said.