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Tension continues on India-Bangladesh border

	April 25, 2005

Tension prevailed on the India-Bangladesh border April 19 as Dhaka and New Delhi took a tough stance over the April 16 gun battle between border guards that left two people dead.

People in border villages fled their homes in fear of fresh skirmishes as both sides mobilised additional troops along the frontier.

A senior officer of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) was killed in Saturday’s incident and a trooper seriously injured. New Delhi described the incident as “pre-planned and pre-meditated”.

Dhaka termed the gun battle as “unfortunate and regrettable” and condemned what it said was an unprovoked attack by the BSF on the Akhaura border point on April 16.

Apart from the eastern Akhaura sector, tension has escalated in the southwestern Satkhira border as the BSF amassed troops there, local sources said.

A senior official of Bangladesh Rifles said April 19 its troopers were on high alert along the border following Saturday’s incident.

A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters: “It was clear that the BSF deliberately intruded into Bangladesh territory and opened fire on innocent villagers.”

But India’s External Affairs Ministry said a joint probe by BSF and BDR had established that BSF Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar, who was killed, and Constable K.K. Surendran had been dragged into Bangladeshi territory and attacked by BDR troopers.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan told journalists before leaving for Indonesia there might have been “some stray incidents” as Bangladesh has a long border with India. He hoped the BDR and BSF would discuss the matter to resolve it.

“I don’t think such a small incident will have any impact on the vast relations between the two friendly neighbours,” Khan said.



Two Bangladeshi ‘intruders’ shot at by BSF

Indian border guards shot at and injured two Bangladeshi nationals trying to illegally infiltrate into the northeastern state of Tripura, officials said April 22.

A Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman said a group of five to six Bangladeshi intruders were trying to cut the barbed wire fencing near Bhagalpur village, about six km from Tripura’s capital Agartala. The incident took place late April 21.

“The Bangladeshi nationals were attempting to breach the border fencing when our patrol party spotted them. The intruders started attacking our soldiers with stones and other objects when they were challenged and fired upon,” BSF Inspector General S.K. Dutta said.

“They could be either infiltrators or smugglers.”

India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-km border, of which 856 km falls within Tripura - a vast stretch of the border remaining unfenced with concrete pillars dividing the two countries.



India to continue Bangladesh border fencing

India has told Bangladesh it would go ahead with the fencing of the border between the two countries, calling it a measure to prevent the movement of troublemakers.

“Fencing is a continuous process going on for the last 20 years. We do not consider it as something defensive or offensive, but a preventive measure to check trans-border movement of anti-social elements,” Border Security Force (BSF) director general R.S. Mooshahary said in Dhaka at the end of four days of border talks.

He said India would continue fencing outside the 150 yards of the borderline. If there is any marketplace or place of worship in the line of fencing, the BSF will inform the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

But Bangladesh said that if the BSF wanted to erect barbed-wire fence within 150 yards of the borderline, the issue would have to be settled through the diplomatic channel.

“If they have any compulsion (for fencing), we told them to contact Bangladesh through the diplomatic channel,” BDR director general Major Gen M.D. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told reporters.

Although the BDR and BSF signed a joint statement following the conference, BDR sources said the Indian side disagreed to take the fencing issue to diplomatic levels and wanted it settled at the level of the border security sector commander.

Mooshahary said New Delhi had not been pushing any Indian citizen into the territory of “any country”.

“It is not the policy of India or the BSF (to push in). I don’t know where you have got this information from,” he said when asked about allegations that Indian nationals were being sent into Bangladesh.

But the BDR placed a list of 34 incidents of “push-ins” that took place over the last six months in which around 600 Indians were sent into Bangladeshi territory.

“When the conference was taking place in Dhaka between the BDR and the BSF, the BSF pushed some 34 Indians into Bangladesh, 23 alone in Naogaon. They (the BSF) shot dead a Bangladeshi in Srimangol and injured another. They also fenced along the border in Comilla,” a top BDR official said.

On allowing anti-Bangladesh elements into Indian territory, Mooshahary said: “I don’t think there is any place in India where terrorists can hide. I disagree with the idea.”

However, Chowdhury said the BDR had handed 10 booklets to his Indian counterpart containing a list of criminal, insurgents and their camps in India.

He said these elements are active against Bangladesh.

Mooshahary said Bangladesh had insurgent camps from where anti-Indian elements were operating.