New Delhi: The ‘Wagah of the East', along the India-Bangladesh border, will be thrown open to the public this Gandhi Jayanti when Home Ministers of both the countries will witness a cultural extravaganza between the two neighbours.
The first retreat ceremony, part of confidence-building measures, between the two countries will be held at Petrapole-Benapoloe border on the lines of the event that happens everyday between India and Pakistan along Wagah border in Punjab, sans the simulated angry looks by border guards and stomping of foot.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will be present with his Bangladeshi counterpart M K Alamgir at the border in West Bengal to inaugurate the over-an-hour ceremony on October 2.
“I will be attending the ceremony,” Shinde said. The ceremony, which will include ceremonial lowering of flags in the evening, will be conducted by the border guards of the two countries—the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) dressed in full regalia.
The BSF, on the India side at the Integrated Check Post area in North 24 Parganas district, will create the required infrastructure for the people to witness the event and will upgrade the logistics over a period of time.
The ceremony, according to the sources will be “friendly and refined” and will include renditions of songs by poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore.
The total time for the cultural programme and joint retreat ceremony will be of half an hour duration, out of which 18 minutes will be for cultural programme and twelve minutes for the drill.
About twenty troops from both sides will undertake the drill. India has included four women BSF personnel to perform the drills.
