All-out efforts on to stop border killings: Home minister

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) continues its all-out efforts while the government is taking necessary measures at the diplomatic level to stop the killing of Bangladeshi nationals by Border Security Force (BSF) of India along the border, reports UNB.

He made the remarks while replying to a query from Awami League MP Mohammad Shahiduzzaman (Meherpur-2) in parliament.

The minister also said a director general-level meeting between BGB and BSF in December last reached a consensus on reducing the border killing to the zero level.

He said the government has taken a plan to update the Police Act, which was enacted during the British era in 1861, to make it a time-befitting one.

"This initiative was taken to make Bangladesh police more attentive to providing services to people," he said while responding to a query from treasury bench MP Mozaffar Hossain (Jamalpur-5).

The home minister said the Police Act 1861 will be translated into Bangla so that it can be understandable to all.

Responding to a query from BNP MP Harunur Rashid, he informed the house that around 26,240 Indian nationals are working in different government projects, business organisations, educational institutions and non-government organisations.

In reply to another query from AL female MP Gloria Jharna Sarker, Asaduzzaman said there might be complexities if a passport is issued only on the basis of national identity card as there are Bangladeshi citizens and people below 18 years of age who have no NID cards.

He also said the biometric registration of around 1.2 million Rohingyas has completed but the integration activities between the Rohingya database and the central database of NID is yet to complete. "That's why there'll be opportunity to misuse the NID [if passport is issued on the basis of NID]," said the home minister.