Author: Star Report
Publication: The Daily Star News
Date: February 1, 2003
URL: http://www.dailystarnews.com/200302/01/n3020101.htm#BODY2
Flag meeting ends inconclusive
About 200 people are confined to
the no-man's land between Bangladesh and India, said sources in the Bangladesh
Rifles (BDR) yesterday.
The Indian Border Security Force
(BSF) pushed them into Bangladesh through the Nazir Gomani border post
under Patgram Upazila in Lalmonirhat and the BDR along with locals pushed
them back to the no-man's land at 2:45am yesterday.
They have run short of food and
water, said the sources.
Witnesses said the BSF gathered
the Bangla-speaking people at the Chenakata camp in India before the push-in
bid.
The BSF gathered over 100 people
more for a push-in, the sources said.
A flag meeting between the BDR and
the BSF beginning at 10.00am yesterday did not reach any conclusion.
At the meeting, the BDR protested
the BSF push-in attempts, while the BSF called the trapped people Bangladeshis
and refused to take them back.
Meanwhile, the BSF massed troops
along the borderline, heightening tension among locals.
Additional BDR personnel were also
deployed in the border area to prevent any push-in attempt.
The repeated push-in bids by the
BSF set members of the Village Defence Party (VDP), Gram Police, ansars
and villagers on high alert.
Lt Col Ashfaque, commanding officer
of the 19-BDR battalion, visited the border area.
In another incident, the BDR pushed
23 people back into India through the Meherpur border, reports our Kushtia
correspondent.
Earlier, Meherpur police caught
and handed them over to the BDR after a one-day interrogation.
Another 15 people were pushed into
Bangladesh through the Ruddhonagar border in Meherpur by the BSF at 6:00am
yesterday. They reached Chuadanga by rickshaw-van, but police could not
trace them out, another source said.
A flag meeting will be held between
the BDR and the BSF this morning at the International Check Post (ICP)
at Benapole.
Earlier, a BDR-BSF flag meeting
scheduled for Thursday was not held, as the BSF personnel did not turn
up.
The first push-in by India took
place at Sadipur near the Benapole ICP on January 22. The BSF pushed 76
Bangla-speaking Indians into Bangladesh.
