BSF kills 5 Bangla Rifles soldiers

The Border Security Force on Friday claimed to have shot dead five Bangladesh Rifles personnel on Wednesday after the latter fired mortars, killing two women at an Assamese village on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Cachar district.

BSF IG S K Dutta told PTI from Agartala that five BDR personnel 'reportedly died 'in retaliatory firing.

"The BDR is up to mischief after Wednesday's incident and have reinforced troops and deployed the army according to inputs received," Dutta said.

"About 40 to 50 Bangladesh army men in BDR uniform are patrolling the border and asking the villagers to vacate the area," he said.

"We are monitoring the situation. There has been no firing after Wednesday. But nothing can be taken for granted because trouble starts only at night," he said. People of Harinagar, Kinnarkal and Tukirgram living along the 32-km stretch of the Indo-Bangla border are still in panic despite top Cachar and Karimganj district officials assuring them of safety.

Trouble has been brewing along the border since June over the occupation of 220 acres of Indian land by Bangladeshi cultivators.

The district administration has opened camps at two schools in Katigorah, the sources said.

The Cachar district administration has arranged two vehicles to shift people from the border areas to safer places. In Karimganj district hundreds of people were taking shelter in the Bhanga high school.

The BSF has urged people to keep a minimum distance of 300ft from the border. BSF patrolling has been intensified and movement of the BDR is being monitored. Union Heavy Industries minister Santosh Mohan Dev told this correspondent that he had discussed the firing on the border with Union Home minister Shivraj Patil.

The home minister, he said, had asked the BSF to intensify security measures.

Sources said the BSF had conveyed its strong protest to the BDR on the 'unprovoked firing' on Wednesday which had violated the agreement of the earlier flag meeting.

A sector-level flag meeting between the BSF and BDR will be held on August 13.