C’nawabganj border tense as BSF kills 2 BDR men Dhaka condemns killing, terms it 'unacceptable'
Saturday July 19, 2008
India's Border Security Force shot dead two members of the Bangladesh Rifles late Thursday night 1.5km inside the Bangladesh territory the Bangladesh border guards were on patrol at Raghunathpur in Chapainawabganj.
The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, strongly condemned the killing of the two border guards and said 'such incidents are totally unacceptable.'
The latest killing in the Indo-Bangla border coincided with the annual consultations of foreign secretaries of the two countries in New Delhi.
The two neighbours at the meeting expressed their satisfaction about the ‘existing functional mechanism’ to deal with terrorism and illegal cross-border activities.
The New Age correspondent in Chapainawabganj said the situation in the Raghunathpur border had been tense as both side reinforced the deployment of border guards.
A sector commanders’ flag meeting was held at Masudpur near the place of occurrence in the afternoon where Bangladesh blamed India for violating international border guidelines by killing the two Bangladesh Rifles men. The Bangladesh side at the meeting demanded a joint investigation into the incident.
India brushes aside Bangladesh’s claim, but gave an assurance to take up Bangladesh’s concerns with higher authorities in India.
Bangladesh Rifles director (operations and training) Abdul Halim at a briefing at the headquarters in Dhaka in the afternoon said the Indian border guards had started firing without provocation at the Raghunathpur border outpost where Bangladeshi border guards were on duty.
The deceased were the patrol team commander havildar Hannan Sarker, 53, of Kirtania at Gabtali in Bogra, and lance nayek Krishna Pada Das, 45, of Kholabari at Shalikha in Magura.
Halim said Bangladesh had already protested at the firing and the violation of border guidelines and the BDR troops in the northern region had been kept on alert.
Iftekhar on Friday said, 'We have taken the matter with utmost seriousness…We are waiting for detailed reports. The BDR authorities have taken up the matter with their Indian counterpart.'
‘Such incidents are condemnable and totally unacceptable,’ he said. He also prayed for the deceased BDR personnel.
The Indian border guards are time and again blamed for their failure to keep peace in the border.
The Indian guards killed 32 unarmed Bangladeshis in the first half of 2008, according to statistics available with human rights organisation Odhikar. In the period, the Indian guards also injured 22 Bangladeshis and abducted 22.
The Chapainawabganj correspondent said a four-member BDR team, led by havildar Hannan Sarkar, challenged a speedboat, along with an engine boat carrying Indian border guards, at the Raghunathpur border post when they entered 1.5 km inside the Bangladesh territory late Thursday night.
The border post is a char area surrounded by the Padma, now inundated by rainwater.
Soon after, the Indian guards started firing, killing Hannan and Krishna on the spot. The Bangladesh Rifles fired back and the Indian side retreated with the speed boat.
The Bangladeshi border guards seized the engine boat and an Indian cattle trader, Anjam Hossain, injured in the gunfight.
After the incident, both the border guards traded gunshots for more than an hour.
The arrested Indian citizen was being interrogated by the Bangladesh Rifles.
The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their family after post-mortem examinations in Chapainawabganj General Hospital.
Quoting Murshidabad district magistrate Subir Bhadra in West Bengal, the Press Trust of India on Friday reported 2 BDR personnel were killed and several BSF members were injured in an exchange of fire between the border guards.
The incident had taken place when BDR personnel started firing near Nimtita where cattle were being smuggled into Bangladesh, Subir Bhadra said, according to the PTI report. It said several BSF men were injured, one of them critically, in the incident.
He said, 'In retaliation, the Border Security Force started firing in which two BDR personnel were killed.'
Source: New Age
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