The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sought reports from ministries and agencies concerned regarding an evolving situation along India-Bangladesh border in Chapainawabganj following some recent incidents.
In a short statement issued on Monday, the foreign ministry said, 鈥楤angladesh believes all problems should be solved through constructive discussion in keeping with the existing bilateral treaties to ensure peace along the border between the two countries.鈥�
It said that the foreign ministry had sought 鈥榙etailed reports鈥� from the ministries and agencies concerned in the evolving situation following the recent incidents along the Chapainawabganj border.聽
On Saturday, Indian villagers clashed with Bangladeshis over harvesting crops on the no-man鈥檚-land along the Chowka border in Chapainawabganj, leaving three people injured and causing fresh tension along the border.
According to the Bangladeshi villagers, wheat, maize, mango, plum and other crops have been cultivated on both sides of the boundary line marked by a border pillar.
Following the incident, Indian villagers and the Indian Border Security Force locked into an altercation with Bangladeshi villagers who went to work in their field on Saturday morning.
Indian villagers, in association with BSF personnel, later on the day illegally entered the Bangladesh territory and felled about 200 mango and plum trees, sparking immediate protests from Bangladeshi villagers.
Video footage of the incident recorded chase and counter-chase and firing of teargas shells and sound grenades from the Indian side by the BSF members.
Earlier on January 8, tension erupted along Chowka border as the BSF began constructing fences along the border despite repeated objections from the Border Guard Bangladesh.
According to international law, no permanent structures or fences, except for agricultural activities, can be erected within 150 yards of the border pillars of either country.
Tension has persisted in the border area since the final week of December last year as the Border Guard Bangladesh and local people protested against India鈥檚 construction of barbed wire fences at five points along the border in Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Lalmonirhat.
On January 12, the foreign ministry summoned the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, and expressed concern over the construction of barbed wire fences and protested at the recent killing of a Bangladeshi national by the Indian BSF.
India has already constructed barbed wire fences along 3,271 kilometres of the 4,156km border, Bangladesh home affairs adviser retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury recently said.
