We are glad that Nayek Razzak of the BGB has been returned to us by the Myanmar authorities, though it has taken longer than it should have. Between two friendly neighbours it was an incident that shouldn't have occurred in the first place, and the inordinate delay, we want to impress, in responding to the BGB request for a flag meeting following the abduction should have been avoided.

Manning border per se cannot be an easy task and when the border happens to be the midstream of a wide river, as is the case with a segment of Bangladesh – Myanmar border defined by the Naf River, there is bound to be confusion while manning such stretch of territory. But those possibilities should be factored in the operational procedures that guide the conduct of border management agreed by the two parties. 

Good border management also requires regular coordination between the commanders at the very lowest level where meeting at short notice is the key to diffuse any tension or remove misunderstanding. Apparently, such an arrangement between the two border forces is absent; otherwise it shouldn't have taken for the local commanders eight days to meet.   

It also appears that there is more to the 'misunderstanding' that the state minister for home had referred to following the abduction. And the DG BGB's comment that the abduction might be connected to smuggling of yaba must be given due cognizance. There is need to beef up the BGB strength on the Naf river, in particular at the point where the incident occurred, it being a route of smuggling of yaba whose source lies in the many yaba manufacturing centers inside Myanmar territory close to the border.