Bangladesh removes Pakistan's name from Border Pillars

Forty-eight years after Bangladesh's independence, Pakistan's name engraved on the border pillars installed after the partition of the Indian subcontinent have been removed on the orders of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

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All Bangladeshi border pillars have been renamed BANGLADESH/BD instead of PAKISTAN/PAK, said a statement by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Thursday.

The BGB started replacing the labels on the pillars following Prime Minister Hasina's order in which she observed that some of the pillars of the bordering areas still show Pakistan's name.

After the partition of India-Pakistan in 1947, more than 8,000 pillars were installed, in which IND-PAK/INDIA-PAKISTAN label was engraved, the media reported.

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These pillars were in the bordering areas of Satkhira, Jashore, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, Panchagarh, Kurigram, Netrokona, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sunamganj, Sylhet, Brahmanbaria, Comilla and Chattogram. People in the bordering areas and those who were aware of the matter were really bothered as the name of Pakistan was not removed from the pillars despite Bangladesh achieving its independence in 1971, added the release.

The BGB completed this mammoth task within a short period of time with its own funds.

Earlier, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister conveyed to the Parliament on September 10 that she is hopeful and confident that the problems between neighbouring countries Bangladesh and India will be amicably solved soon enough before she visits India. PM Sheikh Hasina will be visiting India for a period of four days from October 3-6 to attend the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum to be held in the national capital Delhi from 3-4 October while taking the "Innovating for India" and "Impacting the World" theme into consideration. A two-way dialogue will be held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Shiekh Hasina on October 5. The Teesta River Agreement will also be talked about between the two Prime Ministers.

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