A Wagah on Bangla border

India will soon have a 'Wagah in the East' along the Bangladesh border where troops of both countries, in full regalia, will perform the retreat — ceremonial lowering of flags — similar to the tradition prevalent along the Indo-Pak border.

India will soon have a 'Wagah in the East' along the Bangladesh border where troops of both countries, in full regalia, will perform the retreat — ceremonial lowering of flags — similar to the tradition prevalent along the Indo-Pak border.

HT Image

The decision was taken during the five-day joint coordination meeting of border forces of India and Bangladesh here.

"We have taken some new decisions. Something apart the usual beaten track.... We have a joint retreat ceremony at Attari Wagah border where the Pakistani forces and BSF join together in the retreat ceremony lowering the flags.

"We have decided in-principle to have a similar joint retreat ceremony at the Petraploe border (along Bangladesh frontier)," BSF director general Raman Srivastava said on the conclusion of the joint border talks with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).

The two sides will be examining whether such ceremonies, which they hope will be symbolic of the "good relations" between them, are possible at Akhora and Phoolbani too.

"We have decided to set up a joint committee to explore the modalities methodologies and the other relevant issues of this ceremony and hopefully within a couple of months we should be able to start such a ceremony after working out the modalities," he said

The force, according to a senior BSF officer, would also deploy its recently inducted women personnel to carry out the ceremonies at this frontier.

India and Pakistan have been traditionally hosting the flag lowering ceremonies at the Wagah Attari border for many years now and the event is attended by a huge number of people from both the countries as well as foreigner nationals.