In keeping with this, the Ministry of External Affairs did not summon the Bangladeshi High Commissioner here and the BSF sought a flag meeting with the BDR tomorrow to defuse the crisis. A senior official of the MEA told The Tribune that there was no need for summoning the Bangladeshi envoy as the BSF-BDR firing that took place yesterday and which erupted again this morning had ended. Border guards of India and Bangladesh yesterday traded some 600 bullets across the Gilabari border in the northwestern district of Chapainawabganj. The BSF as well as the BDR called in reinforcements even as the two countries foreign offices grapled to deal with the situation diplomatically. Both sides sounded a red alert in the area, particularly along some 10 km border span in Chapainawabganj and Noagaon districts bordering Indian Malda district and asked villagers to move to safer places.
Both sides have accused each other of starting the firing over the protection of their respective riverbanks from erosion by the Mahananda. The skirmishes continued intermittently into the evening and started again this morning. The dispute originated in March last.
The 4095-km-long Indo-Bangladesh border is extermely volatile and relations between the two countries’ paramilitary forces have remained tense for years. Bloody clashes between the BSF and the BDR are frequent which arise largely because of the continued illegal migration of Bangladeshis into India and radical differences between the two countries on certain larger issues like border fencing and disputed conclaves and enclaves.
The Indo-Bangla tensions have increased particularly after Begum Khaleda Zia became Prime Minister, heading a four-party coalition.
