The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has been playing a pivotal role in maintaining law and order nationwide after the 5 August changeover, Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said today (8 December).
“After the victory of the student-public movement on 5 August, the BGB has been playing a more important and brave role than ever in maintaining law and order across the country,” he made the remarks while speaking at a programme organised to hand over financial assistance to seven individuals who were injured in the July revolution at the Peelkhana Headquarters.
It was held as part of an initiative to rehabilitate 107 students and people injured in the anti-discrimination movement.
The adviser recalled the contribution of the BGB during the mass uprising, saying, “Except for several isolated incidents, the BGB has played a very tolerant, humane and responsible role in the July-August students-people movement across the country.”
He said the BGB has played a responsible role especially in ensuring the security of minorities, making police stations effective, controlling traffic on the roads, keeping the factories operational and checking protests by the garment workers.
“The BGB is playing a strong role at the frontiers to consolidate the victory of the students and the people, ” he added.
He continued that the border force has arrested about fifty controversial people of the immediate past government while trying to cross the border and handed them over to the police.
“In the new context, the BGB has been playing a strong role in protecting the country’s borders, they have been able to arrest a significant number of smugglers and seize a large amount of Indian smuggled goods at the borders in the last three months,” he said.
Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter said that the positive role of the BGB during the turbulent months of July-August is undoubtedly praiseworthy.
Highly praising the role of the BGB in the aftermath of the victory of the students and the people, she said, “The BGB has played a strong role in preventing the smuggling of Hilsa fish across the border to India on the occasion of the last Durga Puja festival.”
She hoped that the BGB would play a more effective role in preventing the smuggling of Hilsa to India in the future as well.
Prominent poet, writer, researcher and thinker Farhad Mazhar, one of the key coordinators of the anti-discrimination movement Hasnat Abdullah and Major Ahmed Ferdous (retd.), among others, spoke on the occasion, said a BGB press release.
The speakers highly praised the BGB for its various nation-building activities after the July revolution and victory.
BGB Director General Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui in his welcome address remembered the brave soldiers who sacrificed themselves in the July revolution with due deep respect and expressed condolences at their deaths.
“The BGB is also working in unison to build a desired Bangladesh. Since the beginning of the July revolution, the BGB has been providing medical services to those injured in the movement at the Border Guard Hospital on its own initiative,” he said.
He expressed the hope that every member of the BGB will work as a ‘watchman at the border’, inspired by the mantra of ‘country above all’.
So far, about 50 injured students and the public have been provided advanced treatment at the Border Guard Hospital for various periods, he said.
In addition to providing medical services at the BGB hospital, he said the BGB previously provided Tk5 lakh to the Shaheed Abu Sayeed Foundation, Tk3 lakh to the family of Shaheed Najibul Sarkar Vishal of Joypurhat and Tk 5 lakh to the injured students at the Popular Hospital in the capital as medical assistance.
