Children of BSF families to visit Bangladesh

In a unique move 24 schoolchildren of the BSF families would be visiting Bangladesh on Sunday, an official said here on Saturday.

A senior Border Security Force (BSF) official said as part of the confidence-building measures, agreed upon by both the BSF and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) -- 24 school children, including 10 girls, would visit Dhaka and different historical places of that country through the Agartala-Akhaura check-post.

"They would return to Agartala on February 21," the official said.

These are children of BSF officials and troopers posted in three northeast frontiers -- Assam-Meghalaya, Cachar-Mizoram and Tripura.

This is the first time schoolchildren are going to Bangladesh from the northeastern region of India.

"Earlier a batch of schoolchildren belonging to BSF families from West Bengal had visited Bangladesh on a similar mission. Children of BGB officials would also visit Indian states soon," he said.

The four northeastern states -- Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) -- share 1,880-km international border with Bangladesh, a large portion of which are unfenced.

--IANS

sc/pg/pcj