25 BSF children on a goodwill visit to Bangladesh

Shillong, Jan 27 (UNI) Five children of Border Security Force(BSF) officials left for Kolkata, enroute to Dhaka, Bangladesh, for a five-day ''goodwill mission''.

The three boys and two girls, who left for Kolkata yesterday as part of the goodwill mission from the Meghalaya-Assam (A&M) frontier here, would be joined by five BSF children from each of the North, South, North Bengal, Manipur-Cachar and Tripura frontiers.

The wards of BSF officials would visit various schools, historical sites and interact with children and officials in Bangladesh during their five-day stay. The children would also participate in cultural programmes, games, singing and dancing with their Bangladeshi counterpart during the visit, said Inspector General of A&M frontier, PK Mishra today.

This is the first time such a visit has been organised between the two frontier guards of India and Bangladesh. BDR's Major General Shakil Ahmed mooted the idea of such an exchange, during the India-Bangladesh border coordination meeting, held in Dhaka last year.

BDR would reciprocate the visit by sending their wards to India on a similar exchange programme.

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