- Bangladesh opened a drone training school near its India border in Sylhet for surveillance purposes
- The Shimanto School will use drones with night-vision and thermal tech for round-the-clock border watch
- The school aims to detect smuggling, drug trafficking, and illegal arms routes along the porous border
Bangladesh has set up a surveillance and drone training school near its international border with India. The "Shimanto School of Surveillance and Drone Warfare" at Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) headquarters in Sylhet was inaugurated by the country's Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, who pegged it as a big step towards managing the porous border.
The school is located around 115 km south of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, and about 55 kilometres from the border with India.
According to Ahmed, drones equipped with night-vision and thermal technologies would enable round-the-clock surveillance at the forested border area and help detect routes used by smugglers, drug traffickers, and illegal arms dealers.
He added that advanced drone technologies from different countries will be incorporated within the next one to two years.
At the inauguration event, BGB personnel showcased techniques for conducting surveillance and operations along the border using drones.
The BGB said the school will mark a new milestone in technology-driven border security, advanced surveillance, and modern operational capability. BGB is a paramilitary force that manages the 4,096.7-kilometer-long international boundary with India.
India's Border Troubles With Bangladesh
India has fenced over 3,200 kilometres of the boundary with Bangladesh, but around 860 km of the India-Bangladesh border remains unfenced, including the 170-odd kilometres where fencing is not possible due to riverine boundaries.
India faces a continuous problem of illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, and forces from both nations have had frequent run-ins at these 'open' areas over New Delhi's "pushbacks."
India describes stopping illegal Bangladeshi migrants at the international border and immediately sending them back as "push back". Bangladesh calls it "push-ins".
Meanwhile, efforts to fence the remaining parts of the border have gathered pace after the West Bengal government recently handed over over 1000 acres of land for erecting border fences after the BJP came to power in West Bengal.
