The Border Security Force (BSF) accused “Indian smugglers” of “using “SIM cards of Bangladesh mobile service providers to pass on strategic information” to the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) but said have not arrested the “moles” citing “communal implications.” Instead, the BSF is soliciting “support of the Village Defense Force to strengthen the civil security.”
The build-up by the BDR is so aggressive and “war-like” that the BSF has ordered primary and secondary schools to suspend classes for an unspecified period along a 32 kilometer stretch. The BSF is accusing the BDR of violating a July 4 flag-meeting agreement by building bunkers demonstrating their “aggressive posture.”
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has apparently ordered an immediate inquiry into allegations that Bangladesh massed troops along the border and encouraged its nationals to intrude into Indian territory with intention to grab farm land. The border guards have exchanged fire on more than three occasions in the last 10 days in Nadia, Malda and Dinajpur district of West Bengal after BSF jawans repulsed cattle smugglers.
The BSF says that on June 28, BDR fired “unprovoked” over a strip of land measuring 216 acres near Surma River which Bangladesh claims as its territory. The land, however, is not disputed, falls inside India and is within the border post that separates the two countries.
