16 BSF men killed as BDR opens fire

NEW DELHI, APRIL 18. Atleast 16 BSF personnel were today killed in firing by Bangladeshi Army and border force men in a forward village in Assam.

The Union Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pande, quoting reports reaching here from the BSF border camp, told reporters that the 16 were killed when Bangladesh Army and BDR personnel resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling on the Boraibari BSF post and civilian areas.

- PTI

Haroon Habib reports from Dhaka:

The BDR Director General, Maj. Gen. Fazlur Rahman, claimed that 16 BSF personnel and two BDR men were killed after the BSF launched a sudden attack in the northern Kurigram district today.

Talking to the Bangla service of BBC from the Indian side of the border, Indian officials said the incident took two BSF lives, while one BDR man was killed.

``Some 33 BSF men entered Bangladesh territory taking cover of smoke shells at Roumari area of Kurigram and started indiscriminate mortar shelling on the villagers'' the BDR chief alleged.

Meanwhile the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Mr. Moni Lal Tripathy was called to the Foreign Office this afternoon for a discussion on ways to defuse the present tension.

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