Bangladesh-India border trade resumes after impasse

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Cross-border trade between Bangladesh and India resumed Sunday evening when truckloads of Bangladeshi goods streamed into India, said officials.

“Some Bangladeshi trucks have already entered India with goods after a green light from the neighboring side, and similarly a few goods-laden Indian trucks also crossed into Bangladesh,” Md. Mamun Kabir Terafder, director of Bangladesh’s southwestern border port Benapole, told Anadolu Agency Sunday evening.

After a more than two-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, cross-border trade between the two South Asian neighbors resumed on June 7 at the port.

Since then trucks with Indian goods started coming in, but the Indian state of West Bengal barred Bangladeshi trucks, citing the pandemic risk.

Protesting the one-sided step, Bangladeshi exporters last week declared a lockdown on Indian trucks and port authorities executed the embargo to avert any untoward incidents.

“As both sides have come to a consensus to allow each other’s trucks, we resumed trade,” Terafder said, but only during daytime, he added.