Lapanag to meet Chidambaram to discuss border firing

SHILLONG - Meghalaya Chief Minister D.D.Lapang Monday said he will meet Home Minister P.Chidambaram in Delhi Wednesday to discuss the regular firing by Bangladeshi border guards in Muktapur sector along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya.

“The fresh shootings in Muktapur are unfortunate. We are deeply concerned and I shall go to New Delhi on March 17 to take up the matter with Home Minister P. Chidambaram,” he said.

“I will impress upon him (Chidambaram) to take up this matter with concerned authorities as the people cannot live in fear,” Lapang said, adding security forces must be watchful to prevent infiltration and to ensure the state is not used by underground elements.

Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troopers Sunday resorted to “unprovoked firing” for the fourth time since February, evoking tension along the border, according to Border Security Force (BSF) officials.

BSF Inspector General (Assam-Meghalaya) Prithvi Raj said that the BDR had resorted to fresh “unprovoked firing” to scare away Indian villagers engaged in fishing in a swamp area in Birkympleng in Meghalayas Jaintia Hills district.

BDR troops had earlier opened fire at Muktapur Feb 4, Feb 14 and Feb 28.

Chidambaram Friday sent Joint Secretary (Border Management) Sada Kant to assess the situation in Muktapur after Meghalaya Revenue Minister R.C. Laloo apprised him of the tension along the border.

In the just concluded BSF-BDR border conference in New Delhi, BSF chief Raman Srivastava had raised serious concern over intermittent firing by BDR forces along the border in Meghalaya.

Meanwhile, panic-striken border villagers in Meghalaya have shifted to safer grounds following Sundays gunfire.

“The situation is tense. Most of the people, especially women and children, have moved to safer grounds after the gunfire,” Muktapur village chief Manoj Manar told IANS.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced.