Search the Internet          Tips

BSF men were killed in cold blood, says IGP Gaur

Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati

The Border Security Force now says its men were "murdered in cold blood" and not killed in a clash on the border as the Bangladesh Rifles had reported.

Inspector General of Police V K Gaur, based in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, said people in civvies lured the jawans across the border and handed them over to the Bangladeshi Army. Bangladesh claimed the jawans had intruded into its territory.

Gaur said that at Assam's Mancachar, where the BSF men were killed, the Indians had not fired a single shot. Some men in civilian clothes had asked a patrol party of 12 jawans to stop. "Suddenly, they were surrounded by over a thousand men who had been hiding behind bushes. They were dragged to the other side and handed over to the army," Gaur said.

One of the jawans escaped to tell the story. "There was no firing, no encounter. They were killed in cold blood," the IGP said.

But in Mancachar, police and villagers blamed the BSF for the aggression in the sector. A platoon was sent in to invade/attack a village on the Bangladesh side, they said. The reason for the move was unclear, though observers said it could be linked to the intrusion in Meghalaya. The team, however, was outnumbered by a combined force of Bangladeshi villagers and the BDR. Two of the BSF men managed to escape, two were caught and 16 were lynched.

Local villagers told reporters in Mancachar: "If they had not gone in to attack the village that side, the BDR wouldn't have retaliated."

Many families were on the road, trying to get as far away from the scene as possible after the BDR opened mortar fire on the border villages.

Shelling at Mancachar stopped around 1530 IST on Thursday, raising hopes of a truce. But just when it seemed the bloodshed had ended, the firing resumed at 1915 IST. "There are reports of fresh firing... We are waiting for the details," Dhubri Superintendent of Police Apurba Jivan Baruah said.

During the brief lull on the sensitive tri-junction of Assam, Meghalaya and Bangladesh, a flag meeting was held at Mahendragarh in Meghalaya. The BDR's Sylhet commander, Asif-ul Hussain, and BSF Commandant V S Alhawat met at Tamabil in the Dawki sector and resolved to maintain the status quo.

Addressing a joint press conference near the Bangladesh customs office at Tamabil, the BSF and BDR commandants said the meeting was cordial and it was decided that peace would be maintained "in our area of responsibility".

Both Hussain and Alhawat said the problem in Pyrdiwah would be referred to their respective governments. Till then, they would follow the 1975 guidelines which explain how border forces should function and also provide details of how the two forces should take up positions against each other.

Earlier, Hussain had called IGP Gaur to discuss Pyrdiwah. Gaur said the crisis had been defused with the Bangladesh Rifles pulling out of the area, where they were holding 20 personnel hostage at the BSF outpost, after three tense days.

The Bangladeshis began to pull out around 0700 IST on Thursday after the BSF "broke the cordon", Gaur said. But the troops are yet to vacate the village. They have only withdrawn from the BSF camp and taken up positions some distance away.

The BSF officer told Hussain to "leave the village entirely". He also asked him to call a meeting of the affected villagers and their headmen to assess the damage done to their homes.

At the press meeting, Hussain denied there was a crisis on the border. "We will maintain status quo as the situation stands from April 14," he said.

Asked if the BDR was pulling out of Pyrdiwah, he said: "We don't know."

The officer claimed there was no aggression on the part of the BDR and not a single bullet had been fired. When it was pointed out that the BDR had intruded into the village, forcing the villagers to flee, he laughed. "BDR has always been going to the village for regular verification of the village," he said.

The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report