Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed today said that in order to ensure the security of the border with Myanmar, as well as to stop border killings, infiltration, drugs, weapons, ammunition, and various cross-border crimes, initiatives have been taken to construct barbed wire fences.

Similar barbed-wire fences have been erected at sensitive places on the border with India. The process of taking up the construction plan is under consideration, he said in parliament while answering a query from BNP lawmaker Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas.

To protect national interests and to reduce all types of crime in the border areas, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is taking and implementing coordinated steps, the minister said.

Salahuddin said the BGB is following a “zero tolerance” policy in line with the government's election manifesto to stop the entry of all types of drugs, including yaba, crystal meth, and phensidyl through the border.

Border criminals are being identified and brought under the law through increased intelligence surveillance, he said, adding that new BOPs/TOCs have been constructed in remote and sensitive border areas.

The construction of new BOPs/TOBs has made it possible to reduce the distance between BGB BOPs and significantly increase the number of patrols, said the minister.

“Smart Border Surveillance System” has already been set up in the highly sensitive areas of the country's southwestern and northwestern borders, he said.

The minister said the construction of roads on the remote hilly border is progressing at a rapid pace, as a result of which the BGB patrol team is able to prevent any border crime very quickly.

Regular public awareness activities are being conducted to make people living in border areas aware of the ill effects of smuggling and crime and to assist the BGB with information on criminals, he added.