By: LakshmiPS
An FIR has been lodged against Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) by its Indian counterpart Border Security Force (BSF) over the killing one of its jawans earlier this week, a senior Indian police officer said.
The Indian BSF on Friday said the Bangladeshi action of killing their trooper and injuring another along the border in West Bengal was unprovoked and that its troops did not fire “a single bullet” when a flag meeting took place between the two sides.
A senior official rejected the Border Guard Bangladesh’s (BGB) statement that its patrol team “had to open fire in self-defence amid gunfire by BSF men”.
“Our men have not fired a single bullet. It was an unprovoked action by the BGB that killed the BSF jawan and injured other,” the official said.
The BGB had said since the BSF personnel had intruded into Bangladesh’s territory, they were told they would be handed over to authorities after the proposed meeting. The situation created panic among Indian border guards, a late night statement issued on Thursday by BGB in Dhaka said.
“The BSF men then turned furious and opened gunfire and started going back to their (Indian) territory.”
The BSF official countered this, alleging the force party of 6 troops had entered 400 meters into the international border across the Padma river in Murshidabad district as that is the “designated place for flag meeting.”
“When BGB requests BSF for flag meeting, we go inside the territory of Bangladesh. When we call BGB for flag meeting, they enter inside our territory at designated point,” he said.
The BGB statement had said their patrol team tried to detain three Indian fishermen who had entered into Bangladesh waters in an engine-run boat, but two of them managed to flee.
Soon four-armed BSF men, including one in uniform, intruded 650 yards inside the Bangladesh territory with a speedboat to take away the detained fisherman, the BGB had said.
Security has been stepped up all along the 4,096 km long Indo-Bangla border guard by the BSF and the BGB, in the wake of the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
