High Commission of India, Dhaka
April 19, 2006PRESS RELEASE
The High Commission of India, Dhaka is seriously concerned about the inaccurate and sensational reports concerning the BSF that have appeared in the local media over the last fortnight. In almost all cases, these reports have been put out by the news agencies BSS and UNB.
2. The High Commission of India has referred these reports to the concerned Indian authorities who have conveyed the facts about the alleged incidents as indicated below:
• March 28, 2006• At approximately 1300hrs on March 28, about 100-150 Bangladeshi civilians, accompanied by troops of BDR's 34 Rifle Battalion ( in uniform ) transgressed into Kalsipara and physically assaulted the residents of Kalsipara who were filling earth and repairing a kuchcha road ahead of the monsoons. The BDR troops resorted to firing, looting and ransacking the houses in the village. They also misbehaved with women and attempted to abduct one Ms Mobina Begum by dragging her into Bangladesh . When this was objected to by an Indian national, Jasmuddin, the BDR troops beat up Jasmuddin with rifle butts, dragged him into Bangladesh territory and killed him with rifle fire at point blank range. When the Indian nationals objected to the killing of Jasmuddin, the BDR troops opened indiscriminate firing. This resulted in killing of one more Indian national and injury to six others.
• The BSF authorities lodged a strong protest over this incident through a flag meeting of the Commanding Officers held at 1750hrs on March 28. During the meeting, the BDR Commander accepted the fault of his troops, assured non-recurrence of such incidents in future, and promised to hand over the dead body of Jasmuddin after post-mortem. The dead body of Jasmuddin was returned by Bangladesh authorities at 1625hrs on March 29. Also, to reassure the villagers of Kalsipara most of whom had left the village on March 28 after the incident, the BSF set up a new border out-post (BOP) Kalsipara after which the villagers returned to their respective homes. Bangladesh media reports about this BOP are a deliberate and gross exaggeration.
• April 12, 2006
• At about 1655hrs on April 12, BDR troops attacked BOP Kalsipara with automatic weapons forcing the BSF to retaliate. Massive build-up of BDR/Bangladesh Army was also observed in front of BSF BOPs of Upenchowki, Jhikabari, Kalsipara, Bajejama, Dacotary and Kalpana. With a view to defuse the situation, the BSF Inspector-General (North Bengal Frontier) spoke to DDG BDR and simultaneously instructed the BSF to cease fire from 2000hrs. However, barely after 45 minutes, the BDR troops, surprisingly, again resorted to unprovoked heavy firing with mortars and light machine-guns. Subsequently, on April 13, a sector-level border coordination meeting was held at Teenbigha and a battalion commandant-level flag meeting was held at BOP Kalsipara.
• April 13, 2006
• At about 0920hrs on April 13, the BSF troops at BOP Laldasjote observed some Bangladeshi nationals excavating sand and stones from river Mahananda well within Indian territory between border pillars 731/18R and 731/20R and asked these people to return to their area. The Bangladeshi nationals went back to Bangladeshi village Jharuapara but returned with BDR after some time. The BDR asked the villagers to fall back from the river area and, at about 0945hrs, opened unprovoked firing with universal machine-guns to which the BSF was forced to retaliate.
• April 15, 2006
• At about 0030hrs on April 15, the BSF challenged a Bangladeshi miscreant who had come close to the border fence after crossing the international border. However, the intruder did not stop and forced the BSF to open fire as a result of which the intruder got injured and died in front of border pillar 448/5R at a distance of about 100 yards on the Indian side. At about 0100hrs, the BDR opened unprovoked firing with universal machine-guns near the ambush point forcing the BSF to retaliate. The BSF stopped firing at about 0700hrs as an act of restraint. However, the BDR stopped firing only at about 0730hrs. During the flag meetings held on April 15, the BDR admitted that the firing had occcured because of a misunderstanding on their part.
• April 16, 2006
• Reports of the ‘abduction and killing of two farmers' by the BSF at Zohorpur frontier is a distortion of the fact that the two ‘farmers' were actually cattle smugglers who had illegally entered Indian territory.
3. The BSF remains committed to maintainenance of peace and tranquility along the border. This is equally the responsibility of the BDR. It is hoped that immediate effective steps would be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
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