Indians still continue to till cropland inside Bangladesh
Staff Correspondent . Sylhet
Indian nationals continued tilling cropland inside Bangladesh at Shreepur near Jaintapur border in Sylhet with reinforced manpower for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
Sources in the Bangladesh Rifles said the Indian Khasia tribesmen started tilling cropland on Monday at Alubagan, some 300 meters inside the Bangladesh territory near the Shreepur BDR outpost, as well as at Minartila and Kathalbari in the area.
Three groups of Indian Khasia tribesmen, each of 20 to 25, entered Alubagan, Minartila and Kathalbari in Shreepur area at about 9-30am crossing the border and resumed tilling the Bangladesh land.
The Indian peasants were armed with bows and arrows as well as firearms, local sources said.
The Khasias from India kept tilling at the three points without paying heed to protests from BDR who warned them not to trespass and plough land inside the Bangladesh territory.
Local people claimed that the Indians were working on the cropland inside Bangladesh over the day, giving a break between noon and 1-30pm.
We warned the Indian nationals several times by blowing whistles and hanging flags, but they did not pay heed to our repeated protests, a BDR soldier at Minartila checkpoint under Shreepur outpost, said.
The 21 Rifles Battalion commandant officer lieutenant colonel Khandakar Zahirul Alam told New Age in the afternoon that he had talked several times with officers of the Indian border security force over the issue.
But the BSF officials said they have no mandate to ask their countrymen to stop tilling on their own land, Zahirul Alam said, adding that the higher authorities of the Bangladesh border guards were aware of the border situation.
The Indian tribesmen began tilling cropland inside Bangladesh territory at Shreepur border of Jaintapur on Friday morning, 17-hours after a high-level flag meeting between the border guards of the two countries where they agreed to keep peace along the frontier.
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