BSF BDR officials hold flag meeting, ceasefire continues

MALDA, Aug 21 (UNI) Sector-level officials of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Border Security Force (BSF) held a flag meeting today at Nimua in the district and agreed to continue the ceasefire reached after heavy exchange of fire yesterday.

The truce was reached after BDR sector commandant Javed Hossain met with a BSF team comprising commandants Sanjay Yadav and Brijesh Kumar and DIG Om Prakash Gaur at around 1100 hours today under Muchia BOP of the 27th Batallion of the BSF.

BSF had stopped the dumping of sandbags in the River Mahananda since the ceasefire yesterday.

They had taken up the exercise to prevent erosion.

Trouble started on Friday when the BSF started dumping the sandbags on their side of the river.

The BDR opened fire in Adampur area at around 1015 hours, forcing the troops to retaliate.

Later, BDR also opened fired in Habibpur and Kumarpur areas of the district.

Tension ran high during the heavy exchange of fire between the border guards of the two countries.

There were also reports of Bangladesh deploying the Army to back up its border outpost.

The firing was stopped yesterday after a ceasefire was reached.

Two Indian nationals, a youth and a girl, were injured in the BDR firing yesterday.

While, seventeen-year-old Namita Chowdhury was hit by a BDR bullet on her leg when she was standing in the courtyard of her house at Adampur, 18-year-old Amar Mandal was hit by a BDR bullet when he went to the border area to witness the firing from BDR at Kumarpur.

He was removed to a kolkata hospital in critical condition.