BSF rejects BGB claims on October 17 incident

KOLKATA: Border Security Force (BSF) has dismissed the claims of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and clearly stated that none of their jawans fired at BGB on October 17.

The BSF has clarified that their jawans went to meet with the BGB officials and they were in a motorboat with an orange flag on it.

According to BSF officials, BGB claimed that they had caught three Indian fishermen on October 17 morning while catching Hilsha. Among three, two fishermen managed to flee. Countering this, BSF stated that fleeing from the spot where BGB intercepted them, was not possible as water in that area is very much deep there. BSF sources claimed the two fishermen approached them and stated that BGB has detained one Indian fishermen and asked to bring BSF jawans. They will release the detained fisherman only after BSF arrives.

BSF also released some photographs taken from Bangladesh side, where it could be seen that BSF'S boat with an orange flag on it anchored on the shore. BSF'S logic is if BGB had refused to allow them and did not help them to anchor the boat, how BSF jawans were able to reach the Bangladesh land. Also in the photographs it could be seen that BSF jawans were not carrying any weapons.

While discussing about the situation, all of a sudden BGB officials told the BSF jawans that they have crossed international borders violating the norms. Thus they will be detained.

Hearing this, BSF jawans went back to the boat and was coming back to India. All of a sudden BGB jawans started firing while BSF jawans were facing Indian territory.

In the past years during several occasions both BSF and BGB have caught fishermen both from Bangladesh and India while catching Hilsa. In every occasion both BSF and BGB used to meet and release the detained persons. However, in maximum instances BGB refused to release the detained fishermen whereas India in every case released the Bangladeshi fishermen if found innocent.