DHAKA, July 10, 2020 (BSS)- Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) today formally protested a news item published in Kolkata’s Bangla daily Anandabazar on Tuesday with a headline ‘Bangladeshis stepping into unprotected land’, meaning Bangladeshis are freely cultivating in unprotected lands along the country’s Rajshahi frontiers.
In a statement, BGB termed the news item as “baseless, fabricated and purpose-oriented” saying there was no incident of cultivation on the lands along the Raninagar border areas in Rajshahi district.
The release said the Anandabazar mentioned in its report that Bangladeshis are farming on 22,000 acres of lands stretching from 1 and 2 number Raninagar block to Jalangi areas along the borders with neighboring India.
But the real scenario goes that when it is impossible to carry out cultivation even along the international border line because of round the clock patrolling by BGB members along the zero line to protect the frontiers, the question of cultivation going inside the India territory is far from truth.
The BGB statement expressed its suspicion that actually vested
quarters of India or Indian nations could have served the report to
the Indian newspaper to hide the overall failure of the local
battalions of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
It also hinted that the reasons behind carrying the ‘baseless and
fabricated’ news item could be hiding the prevailing hostile relations
of the Indian border force with Indian locals in the areas along the
Indian boarders which is mostly inhabitants of Muslim community,
realization of illegal money by BSF members from local fishermen
during fishing and becoming unable to do any act by local cow
smugglers during that season.
The areas mentioned in the report lie from Charghat Border Outpost
(BOP) to Talamari BOP under Rajshahi regional BGB office and it
crosses the zero line along the river Padma and either side of the
bordering areas are extensive char lands, the statement said.
It said the report mentioned BSF detained two Bangladesh nationals
for intruding Indian territory two days ago and as a result,
Bangladeshi miscreants picked up two villagers (Indians) from the
Raninagar frontier areas in ransom.
“But in reality the incident is completely contrary” to the
description mentioned in the report, said the BGB statement again
terming it purpose-oriented.
In fact, on July 2, two incidents took place in the Jalangi border
area which were completely different from the focal point of the
Anandabazar report.
On July 2 at around 11:30am, two Indian smugglers –Nayan Sheikh
and Shahidul Sheikh – hailed from Jalangi intruded into Bangladesh
territory crossing the international borderlines through the Jalangi
frontier and went berserk on locals of Yusufpur village inside
Bangladesh over illegal drug trade and money transaction.
Without taking the matter lightly, the locals besieged them and
later being informed, Yusufpur BGB camp personnel took the two Indian
nationals to their refuge for their safety.
On the other hand, on the same day at around 12 noon, the BSF patrol
team intruded into 300 meters of Bangladesh territory crossing
international borderlines and picked up away three innocent
farmers from Yusufpur area who were returning home after
cultivating in the char area.
Against the backdrop of the two incidents, BSF-BGB held a flag
meeting on the same day and the following day the matter was settled
amicably with handing over the citizens of the both countries in a
peaceful manner.