The Border Security Force and the Border Guard Bangladesh will hold director-general-level talks in Delhi from February 17, the first time since the regime change in Dhaka and amid growing border tensions.
"The dates for the three-day talks have been finalised and it will begin on February 17," said a BSF official.
Sources said the issue of fencing, the latest thorn in bilateral ties, and the rise in infiltration attempts would be among the top agendas at the meet. The meeting at the DG level was postponed twice because of the political crisis in Bangladesh last year.
The Indian side is likely to raise concerns over recent objections by BGB personnel to the fencing work undertaken by the BSF along the India-Bangladesh border, particularly in the Bengal sector.
Sources said the Indian side, during the DG-level border talks, was expected to take up increased instances of infiltration attempts by Bangladeshi nationals since August last year and their link to human trafficking and cross-border smuggling.
Bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh have been strained after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. Earlier this month the interim government in Dhaka had summoned Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma to the office of foreign secretary Md Jashim Uddin.
Verma was told that the BSF's "unauthorised attempt" to construct fences had caused "tensions and disturbances" along the border. The next day, India made it clear to acting Bangladesh high commissioner Nural Islam in Delhi that all laid-down protocols were being followed while constructing the fences as it conveyed its expectation that "all earlier understandings will be implemented by Bangladesh and there will be a cooperative approach to combating cross-border crimes".