At least 15 Bangladeshi villagers were injured as India’s Border Security Force and the Bangladesh Rifles traded gunshots at Dibir Haor in the Jaintapur border in Sylhet Sunday afternoon over fishing in Kendri Bil by Indians. Villagers living along the border have left their homesteads.
Tension also mounted in the Pratappur border in Gowainghat as the border guards of the two countries faced off with a 75-yard stretch in between after the Border Security Force again crossed and took position in the bunkers they dug inside the Bangladesh territory Thursday night.
Although the Indian guards left the bunkers and went back into India Saturday night after a flag meeting, they again entered Bangladesh and took position in the bunkers about 9:00am on Sunday.
The latest incidents of intrusion took place days after the border talks between the chiefs of the border guards of the two countries ended in New Delhi on March 11 where both the sides vowed greater cooperation in this regard.
The India guards agreed to stop intrusion into Bangladesh and to exercise restraints to end killing of innocent people in border areas.
Villagers at Dibir Haor said the gunfight began about 2:45pm as the Border Security Force along with Indian Khasia tribesmen fired into the Bangladesh territory and the Bangladesh Rifles fired back.
Both the sides traded more than 500 gunshots till evening in which at least 15 civilians inside Bangladesh were injured. Both the sides were reinforcing deployment of soldiers.
Many of the people remained stranded in the area but most of them living in 10 to 12 bordering villages have left their homes for shelter as bullets fired by the Indian guards reached two kilometres and a half inside the Bangladesh territory.
Fifteen people sustained bullet injuries and 13 of them were admitted to Jaintapur upazila health complex. Two of the people injured critically were sent to Osmani Medical College Hospital in Sylhet, BDR sources said.
Tension mounted in the area Sunday morning as some 80 Indians trespassed into Bangladesh and tried to catch fishes in Kendri Bil. As the BDR soldiers and local people stopped them, the Khasia tribesmen launched an attack with bows and arrows in which at least five people, including elderly freedom fighter Suleman Ali, were injured. The Khasia tribesmen later retreated in the face of BDR resistance.
After half an hour, some 20 people BSF soldiers entered Bangladeshi and reached up to Ukiltila about 300m inside and asked the BDR soldiers to hand over the control of Kendri Bil to them claiming it was inside the Indian territory. The BSF soldiers kept insisting on the Bangladesh Rifles’ handing over the control and later went back to India about 11:00am.
Some 40 Indian Khasia tribesmen about midday again reached Kendri Bil and started fishing. The Bangladeshi people and the BDR men stopped them. The Khasias and the BSF men about 2:15pm started firing into Bangladeshis from beside the Muktarpur BSF camp which resulted in the gunfight between the border guards of the two countries. Sporadic gunfights continued till 4:30pm.
The commander of the 21 Rifles Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Zahirul Alam, told New Age the Border Security Force deliberately launched the aggression on Bangladesh. ‘We have contacted BSF officials for talks but they did not make any response. Senior BSF officials said their people at the Muktarpur camp would do what they would deem fit,’ he said.
‘Provocative action by the Border Security Force 5 days inside the BDR chief’s amicable meeting with the regional chief of the BSF was unfortunate,’ he said.
The upazila nirbahi officer, Jahangir Alam, along with the upazila administration, was waiting near the Kadamkhal Bridge, four kilometres off the place of occurrence, when the gunfight was going on and they were surrounded by several thousand anxious villagers who left their homes.
The Border Security Force in the Pratappur border at Gowainghat once again intruded into Bangladesh about 9:00am on Sunday and took position in the bunkers they dug Thursday night.
The Border Security Force left the bunkers and went back to India Saturday night after a flag meeting but their return on Sunday morning triggered fresh tension in the area. Both the sides were deploying additional soldiers as backup measures and faced off each other near border pillar 1270.
The return of BSF to the area panicked people in bordering villages and people left their homes for shelter.
Jahangir, a resident of Panthuwai, said all the families of their village left their homes for shelter. ‘We have been out of home for three days. As the BSF men retreated Saturday night, we returned home but left again this morning immediately at the news of the arrival of BSF soldiers,’ he said.
The Bangladesh Rifles said Indians were out to occupy some 150 acres of land inside Bangladesh and continued launching attacks over a few days. The Indians have occupied some 200 acres of Bangladesh land since 1974.
The second-in-command of the 21 Rifles battalion, Major Abdullah Al Mamun, the Border Security Force repeatedly attacked the frontier but the Bangladesh Rifles was showing utmost restraints.
Asked about repeated scuffles in the Bangladesh-India border, including Sunday’s incident in Sylhet, despite decisions at the policymaking level of the two countries to maintain restraints, the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, said, ‘A stray incident [such as the scuffle between the border guards] might happen along the long border stretch. But such incidents are resolved at appropriate local levels through discussions.’
‘We, however, do not expect such incidents to continue,’ she said at a briefing at the foreign ministry on Sunday.
New Age: Dhaka 15th March 2010
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