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India, Bangladesh ties tested by border shootouts

Other News Materials 20 July 2008 13:27 (UTC +04:00)

Bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh suffered a low after the border forces of the two neighbours traded gunfire killing at least six people at the weekend, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

A spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Dhaka said the government lodged a strong protest with India over the border skirmish in the Chapai-Nawabganj sector in north-western Bangladesh.

The shootout resulted in the death of two soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles paramilitary frontier brigade, and one member of the Indian Border Security Force, the dpa reported.

A Bangladeshi farmer living close to the border was also killed in the crossfire Saturday, the spokesman said.

The Foreign Ministry blamed Indian border authorities for provoking the incident.

Two Bangladeshi nationals were also killed by Indian forces in another border flare-up in western Jessore sector, local BDR commander Mosharraf Hossain said.

India and Bangladesh share more 4,000 kilometres of porous border, plagued by crime including human trafficking and smuggling of illegal arms.

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