BSF tightens security on Bangladesh border after firing

SHILLONG - The Border Security Force (BSF) has tightened security along the India-Bangladesh border after Bangladesh’s border guards have been resorting to “intermittent unprovoked firing” in south-western Meghalaya, officials said here Tuesday.

“Since Feb 4, the BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) troopers have resorted to intermittent unprovoked firing at Muktapur in Jaintia Hills district in south-western Meghalaya. Whenever the Indian villagers went to the border areas for fishing or farming, the BDR jawans have started firing,” BSF’s Assam-Meghalaya frontier Inspector general Prithviraj Singh told reporters.

He said the BSF troops deployed along the border retaliated.

“We have strengthened all our BOPs (border out posts) and put BSF troopers on maximum alert. If the BDR indulges in misadventure, we will give them a befitting reply.”

Reports across the border have suggested that the BDR has also deployed fresh troops along the border.

There have been no reports of any casualty on the Indian side due to the firing.

A commandant level flag meeting was held Tuesday to quell the situation.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration and occasional skirmishes.

According to official records, 551.8 acres of Bangladeshi land is in possession of India, while 226.81 acres of Indian land is in possession of Bangladesh. All these areas are disputed.