Enclave exchanging begins Friday midnight

Panchagarh Correspondent: The word `enclave` will be the historic word from Friday midnight as the two neighboring countries- Bangladesh and India- will start exchanging of historic enclaves from the midnight of July 31, 2015 (tonight).

The exchanging ceremony will take place in line with the LBA documents exchanged between the two countries on June 6 during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Dhaka visit.

Earlier after passing LBA in India, the residents of Kurigram, Nilphamari and other enclaves areas offered sweets each other as the Bangladesh and India have exchanged instruments for ratification of Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between the two countries.

The residents of the area have also flown Bangladesh`s flag while they observed their satisfactions over the LBA with the neighboring country.

The residents of 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh will become Bangladeshi citizenship from tonight.

Residents of the officially recognized 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 55 Bangladeshi enclaves in India - have been living as ‘stateless citizens’ since 1947 without even basic human rights and out of the ambit of all state-funded development and welfare schemes.

There are 111 Indian enclaves with 17,158 acres area inside four northern Bangladeshi districts of Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Panchagarh districts.

On the other-hand, there are 51 Bangladesh enclaves with 7,110 acres area inside Koochbehar district in West Bengal of India.

The Indian Lok Sabha finally passed constitution amendment bill on Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh to settle the long boundary disputes with the country on May 7.

From midnight on July 31, the sufferings of the residents are expected to be ended forever. They will get normal lives and livings like other citizens in the two countries.


risingbd/ Panchagarh/ July 31, 2015/ Hasibul Karim/ Mahfuz