Border tense as BSF-BDR firing continues

Statesman News Service

MALDA, July 20: Less than a week after a heavy exchange of fire between the BSF and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel along the Indo-Bangladesh border at Lakshminarayanpur village, the two forces again exchanged fire at Sidhai village in South Dinajpur district today over a dispute on trans-border crime. The deputy inspector general of the BSF, Malda sector, Mr Dharamveer Saraswat, said: “We had to retaliate after the BDR personnel began unprovoked firing, aiming the Indian side of the border, around 9 am today. They fired five rounds, prompting us to retaliate.” Trouble broke out after an encounter between the BSF jawans and a group of Bangladeshi smugglers at Sidhai village around 5.30 am today. According to the BSF officials, a group of eight Bangladeshi smugglers, backed by the BDR, crossed the border and entered into the Indian territory early this morning. When the BSF personnel chased them, the smugglers retaliated, prompting the former to open fire. Realising that the situation was going out of their control, the smugglers succeeded in hiding themselves in a jute field, and later they somehow managed to escape from the area. One BSF jawan was injured in the encounter with the smugglers. “The jute and sugarcane fields, close to the border, is a security threat for us as they affect the visibility,” Mr Saraswat said. The BSF authorities had recently urged the district administration to clear some areas along the border where jute and sugar cane fields prevent the Indian border guards from watching the borderline properly. Mr Saraswat said that the commandant of the BSF’s 57 Battalion held a flag meeting with the BDR officials today after the incident and requested them to prevent Bangladeshi smugglers from committing border crime. On 17 July, the BSF and BDR personnel had traded fire along border at Lakshminarayanpur village after the death of a Bangladeshi cattle smuggler.