BSF, BGB Officials Meet Over Skirmish Near Bengal Border

Border guards from India and Bangladesh will ensure that residents along the international border in the Malda-Rajshahi sector will not engage in violence again, and both forces will track social media to ensure fake narratives are not peddled to instigate violence.

- Prawesh Lama

NEW DELHI: These were the two key takeaways from a sector commander meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), people aware of the matter said on Thursday.

A five-member BSF delegation from the Malda sector visited Bangladesh for a meeting with BGB on Wednesday, three days after Indian and Bangladeshi citizens were involved in stone-pelting due to a dispute along the Sukdevpur border village.

At least a thousand citizens from both sides pelted stones, prompting forces to use stun grenades and tear gas to quell the violence, officials said.

"The Indian villagers had retreated as soon as additional forces reached the spot. The civilians on the Bangladesh side were at the border till 5-6pm that day. Despite BGB personnel urging them to return and not loiter by the border, they were adamant. Both forces will ensure that there will be no gathering of civilians, except farmers who go to their fields near the border, until the matter is resolved, as the disputed border fence construction work is on hold," an official aware of the incident said, asking not to be named.