Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has refused to return 5 Indian fishermen who entered Bangladesh at the border. Despite several flag meetings, the BGB did not agree to the request of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF). Indian media Hindustan Times reported this information in a report on Tuesday.
According to the report, 5 Indian sailors accidentally entered the waters of Bangladeshi territory with a boat. The BSF later claimed that they were deployed to rescue cattle being smuggled into Bangladesh through the Maldar river border on the night of August 17. But due to the rise in the river and the intensity of the waves, they were swept towards Bangladesh.
Later BGB arrested them. BGB has refused to return these Indians who entered Bangladesh ‘by mistake’. This is the ‘first’ incident of BGB not returning Indian infiltrators in the last few years, said top BSF officials. They are surprised by such an incident.
The BSF South Bengal border headquarters and senior officers immediately contacted the BGB to retrieve these arrested sailors. But the BGB jawans refused to let them go. A flag meeting was then called for. But still BGB did not leave them. BGB has handed over the detained Indians to the police.
BSF’s South Bengal border DIG AK Arya admitted the matter to Hindustan Times and said, ‘Later there were several rounds of flag meetings. Considering the good relations between the forces of the two countries, they were asked to leave. But BGB refused to hand over the sailors to us. This is the first time BGB has refused to release our sailors who entered Bangladesh by mistake.