[ALOCHONA] Sylhet border tense as Indian BSF digs bunkers inside Bangladesh

Sylhet border tense as Indian BSF digs bunkers inside Bangladesh

Even after the consensus reached by the border guards of the two neighbours after a border conference in New Delhi on the day, the BSF trespassed into the Bangladesh

Border in Sylhet remains tense although India�s Border Security Forces on Saturday agreed to quit the bunkers they dug trespassing into the Bangladesh territory Thursday night, hours after a consensus between the chiefs of the two border forces to keep peace in the frontiers.

Even after the consensus reached by the border guards of the two neighbours after a border conference in New Delhi on the day, the BSF trespassed into the Bangladesh territory, prompting the Bangladesh Rifles to take position in the area on Friday.

In reply to a question after the border talks, the BSF chief said most of the killings took place during the night. He admitted that one of the BSF soldiers lost his job, after trial, for illegally crossing into the Bangladesh territory. �Another has been booked for the same offence and an inquiry was going on,� he said.Villagers of Pratappur at Goainghat in Sylhet, meanwhile on Saturday, remained panicked as most of them were yet to return to their homesteads.

The border guards of the two countries held a flag meeting Saturday afternoon and the Indian side agreed to leave the bunkers they dug on Thursday night some 100m inside the Bangladesh territory along the Pratappur border at Goainghat in Sylhet, Bangladesh Rifles officials said.

The Border Security Force tried to occupy some land 200m inside the Bangladesh territory along the Pratappur border, known as Padua border on the Indian side, according to Bangladesh Rifles officials.

The Indian guards dug a dozen bunkers inside the Bangladesh territory and about 50 of them, equipped with heavy firearms, took position in the bunkers ignoring repeated BDR requests for them to leave the Bangladesh territory.

BDR soldiers late Thursday night also took position about 50m off the bunkers in the border to stop the Indians from occupying land in Bangladesh.The Bangladesh Rifles requested the Border Security Force several times between Thursday night and Friday to set at a flag meeting to discuss the matter.

The Indian guards on Saturday morning agreed to sit at a flag meeting, which later was held in the Pratappur border in the afternoon.Lieutenant Colonel Khandaker Zahirul Alam, commandant officer of the 21 Rifles Battalion, led the Bangladesh side to the meeting.

�In the face of strong protest, the BSF officials agreed to dismantle the bunkers and go back into their territory. They started going back into their country along with firearms and ammunition,� Zahirul Alam told New Age over telephone.

Zahirul�s counterpart Shekhar Gupta, commanding officer of the BSF 1, represented the Indian side in the flag meeting that continued for an hour and a half from 1:30pm at Pratappur in Goainghat on Saturday.

Zahirul said a stretch of 700m along the Padua border had already been in the possession of the Border Security Force for long. But the BSF officials at a flag meeting on September 29, 2009 had also put forth a demand for the Bangladesh Rifles to give another 200 metres of land in the same border.The BDR soldiers were kept on alert as the Indian guards were withdrawing.

The incident took place hours after a conference the same day between the two forces in New Delhi. The BDR director general, Major General Mainul Islam, and his counterpart, Raman Srivastava, led respective sides to the conference.

Srivastava reportedly admitted there had been some cases where BSF soldiers had crossed the border into the Bangladesh territory and strict action had been taken against them.

He hoped that the outcome of the conference would have �very good influence on Indo-Bangla relations.�The two chiefs reached a consensus in keeping peace in the frontiers, according to meeting sources.

The BDR soldiers took possession of 528 acres of Bangladesh land along the Padua border after a heavy fight with the Indian border guards in 2001, more than two decades after the land had been occupied by the Border Security Force.The Bangladesh Rifles, however, retreated from its position, leaving the land to the Border Security Force several hours after the land had been reclaimed.

The BSF soldiers abducted a Bangladeshi young man named Jalil Miah, a resident of Uttar Pratappur at Goainghat on Wednesday afternoon from the Pratappur border in Goainghat.

He returned on Thursday more than 18 hours inside his abduction after a camp commander-level flag meeting in the Pratappur border, BDR sources said.The BDR troops killed a 12-year-old Bangladeshi girl in the Roumari border in Kurigram in January.At least 17 Bangladeshis have so far been killed by the Indian border guards in 2009.

According to rights organisation Odhikar, which regularly monitors the human rights violation across the country and in border areas, at least 904 unarmed Bangladeshis have been killed in BSF firing in the borders since January 1, 2000.Of them, 789 were killed between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2008, 98 in 2009 and 17 between January 1, 2010 and March 3, 2010.

Besides, 869 were injured, 266 detained and 909 abducted; 184 went missing; and 14 women and girls were raped by the Indian guards between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009. At least 70 incidents of looting by the Border Security Force also took place during the period.

On February 4, the Indian border guards abducted nayek Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh Rifles after injuring him with bullets from Bibir Haor at Jaintapur upazila in Sylhet. Nayek Mujibur Rahman was handed over to the Bangladesh Rifles after a flag meeting in the Tamabil frontier 10 hours after he had been kidnapped.

Three Bangladeshis were injured in BSF firing in the same place on February 14 and the Indian guards fired into Bangladeshi in the place on February 26 and 28.The killing and abduction of Bangladeshis and other offences committed by the BSF inside the Bangladesh territory along the borders go unabated despite repeated Indian assurance for ending such incidents.

The BSF chief on July 14, 2009 pledged to take action to stop �unnatural death along the porous Indo-Bangla borderThe BSF director general made the pledge at the end of a three-day conference in Dhaka where he also gave an assurance for action against Indian border guards for violation of human rights by killing Bangladeshis.

The issue was last discussed between the two neighbouring governments when the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, visited India in January.A joint communique, signed during the visit, said border forces of the two countries must �exercise restraint to prevent loss of lives in border areas.A Bangladeshi farmer was, however, tortured to death by the BSF the very day the communiqu� was signed, on January 12.
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/14/front.html

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