not to trespass
Flag meeting fails amid growing tension
on Jaintapur border
Staff Correspondent . Sylhet
Tension escalated in the Sylhet border on Monday after the Indian Border Security Force turned down a Bangladesh Rifles request to stop their nationals from intruding into Bangladesh territory on the pretext that the Indian government had not given them the authority to do so.
BSF officials at a battalion commander level flag meeting between the two border guards at Tamabil land port in the afternoon, refused to restrain Indian civilians from trespassing and fishing in Bangladesh territory, sources in the BDR said.
At least 15 Bangladeshis were injured when the BSF and Indian Khasia tribesmen opened fire on Bangladeshi villagers on Sunday afternoon when they tried to resist the Indian nationals from fishing in the Kendribil marsh, some 300 metres inside Bangladesh territory.
At the meeting the Indian officials, however, agreed to hold a high-level meeting of the border guards of the two countries for a solution of the disputes over lands along the Sylhet border, the sources added.
Commanding officer of the 21 Rifles Battalion, lieutenant colonel Khandaker Zahirul Alam represented the BDR side while BSF’s commanding officer Shekhar Gupta led the Indian side in the flag meeting that ended at about 6:00pm.
The BDR Sylhet sector commander colonel Niamul Islam Fatemi told New Age over telephone in the evening that they had requested the BSF officials in the flag meeting to ask their nationals not to cross into Bangladesh territory in the area.
The Indian officials said they could not do so as their government had not given them such authority, colonel Fatemi said.
What the BSF meant was that the Indian nationals would continue to trespass into Bangladesh territory and BSF will not ask them not to do so, he added.
‘It means Indian nationals will cross into Bangladesh territory and fish and the BSF will not prevent them,’ the BDR official said.
The BDR official told his Indian counterpart in the meeting that if the BSF did not prevent their people from intruding into Bangladesh, the BDR could not ask Bangladesh nationals not to resist the Indians.
‘The land belongs to them [Bangladeshis] and we cannot ask them to hand over their ownership to others,’ colonel Fatemi said.
Lieutenant colonel Khandaker Zahirul Alam of the 21 Rifles Battalion said the BSF officials, however, regretted the incident of rampant firing on the Bangladeshi villagers by the Indian border guards and Khasia tribesmen.
The BSF assured the BDR that such incidents would not be repeated and stressed the need for holding a high-level meeting between the border guards of the two countries for reaching a solution to the disputes over lands in Sylhet border that included Pratappur under Goainghat and Dibir Haor at Jaintapur.
Sources in the BDR said that tension at the Pratappur border had mounted after the flag meeting ended without an agreement.
Sources said the tension triggered by digging of bunkers and taking position with heavy weapons by the BSF about 150m inside Bangladesh territory in Pratappur border on Thursday night seemed to diminish Monday noon as the BSF agreed to sit in a flag meeting.
Residents of villages along the Pratappur border, including Uttar Pratappur, Hazipur, Dhalarpar, Balurkona and Pangthumai, who fled their homes Friday morning did not return till Monday.
Day labourer Hiran Miah of village Balurkona said he thought he would be able to return home after the flag meeting. ‘But the situation seems to have turned worse as the BSF officials did not agree to the BDR’s proposal in the flag meeting.’
THE NEW AGE
