India, Bangladesh sign joint border maps in Dhaka

Bangladesh and India on Saturday signed joint border maps, finalising the 4,156 km-long frontier between the neighbours.

The long-standing border-related discord between the two nations was settled through the signing of the maps, said Bangladesh leaders and top officials.

The signing ceremony, held at the Department of Land Records and Surveys here, was concluded two weeks before the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi Tariq Ahmad Karim and Indian High Commissioner here Rajeet Mitter signed some of the 1,149 maps for five sectors of the 4,156-km border. While half of the maps were signed here, others will be signed in New Delhi.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, leader of the Bangladesh-India Joint Boundary Working Group (JBWG), said the Bangladesh Prime Minister and his Indian counterpart would sign on the back page of the map during Dr. Singh's visit in September first week.

Bangladesh Home Minister Sahara Khatun, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira, and others attended the signing ceremony.

The signing was seen as a historic event. In 1952, the then Pakistan government initiated the preparation of the map and the effort continued till 1960.

In 1967, a joint India-Pakistan survey was conducted, but without much progress. After Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971, an effort was made in 1986. This also did not work. The final success was seen after two countries undertook a joint move recently.

A strip map is an unscaled drawing of a route to include critical points along the border. It usually incorporates distances, roadside features and town facilities on a simple flip-over style map.