Politics / Northeast

TURA, April 22: The fifteen Border Security Force (BSF) jawans, tortured and killed in the hands of Bangladesh Rifles, were yesterday given full military honours in the presence of the BSF Director General (DG), Gurbachan Jagat, at Tura Praharinagar 118 Battalion of BSF. Earlier, a post-mortem was again done by government doctors at Tura. Jagat, while interacting with the jawans, called upon them to be brave and not to be deterred by what Bangladesh had done. He said that the BSF would not be cowed down by such an act perpetrated by Bangladesh. Jagat who was scheduled to leave for Delhi, the...

NEW DELHI, April 22: Eight of the 15 BSF soldiers, killed by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel along the Indo-Bangla border were shot dead to point blank range after being brutally tortured while another was strangulated, Home Secretary Kamal Pande said today reports PTI. "It is a brutal act of murder," Pande told reporters after a high-level meeting presided over by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to discuss the killing of BSF soldiers at Boraibari along the Assam border and the intrusion by BDR in Pyrdiwah in Meghalaya. The meeting was attended by Home Minister LK Advani, Defence and...

MANKACHAR, April 22: The situation in the Mankachar subdivision of Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh is limping back to normalcy as the villagers, who fled to safer places in the face of heavy exchange of fire between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), have started returning to their deserted villages. Meanwhile, after visiting the affected area, Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today demanded that security measures along the border should be strengthened by deploying more forces. As many as 16 BSF men were brutally killed by BDR men and local villagers, while...

NEW DELHI, April 21: India today lodged a strong protest with Bangladesh over the "inhuman treatment" of BSF personnel killed in Boraibari and demanded immediate return of two injured soldiers in Bangladeshi custody, reports PTI. As a shocked nation woke up to a photograph of the body of a BSF jawan being carried like an animal and watched gruesome pictures of the mutilated bodies of the soldiers on TV channels, Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer summoned Bangladesh High Commissioner Mostafa Farooque Mohammed to the Foreign Office and conveyed New Delhi's concern over the brutality inflicted on...

SHILLONG, April 20: No fresh firing was reported on Friday on the international border with Bangladesh from Meghalaya to Assam since the Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles struck truce at Thursday flag meeting at Dawki in Meghalaya, reports PTI. R C Silkoti, Commandant of BSF head quarters here told PTI there was no report of exchange of fire between BSF and BDR at Pyrdiwah in Meghalaya and Mankachar area in Assam with both sides agreeing to maintain status quo. He said everything is peaceful there' and Bangladesh would on Friday return the bodies of the BSF, jawans killed by BDR at...

GUWAHATI, April 20: The bodies of 15 of the 16 Border Security Force (BSF) officers and men killed by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel along with the villagers of Bangladesh were returned to the Indian authorities this evening and from the wound marks in the bodies, it was apparent that the BSF men were killed in cold blood and they were not killed in a shoot-out. Highly-placed official sources said that the bodies of 15 BSF men killed inside Bangladesh were handed over to the Indian authorities at Mahendraganj in Meghalaya-Bangladesh border late this evening. The Bangladesh Rifles...

NEW DELHI, April 19: In a shot in the arm for the Assam Government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that it favoured Assam's plea for entrusting the Survey of India with the job of ascertaining the inter-State boundary between Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, rather than the Union Government's suggestion for constitution of a boundary commission. The vexed issue of demarcation of inter-State boundary came up for hearing on Wednesday at the Court of the Chief Justice, A S Anand. The division bench that also included Justice R C Lahoty and Justice Doraiswamy Raju, adjourned the...

AGARTALA, April 19: The 1286-km long Tripura-Cachar-Mizoram border with Bangladesh has been put on 'maximum alert' following the killing of 16 BSF jawans by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at Boribari in Assam yesterday, a senior official said today, reports PTI. "All BSF outposts in Tripura, Mizoram and Cachar district of Assam along the Bangladesh border have been put on alert so that any attempt to attack our nationals or occupy our land by any foreign quarters can be thwarted", Deputy Inspector General S Basumatari said. The BSF's strength has been increased in Muhurichar outpost in South Tripura...

GUWAHATI, April 19: Panicky villagers of Man-kachar subdivision in Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh continued to flee to safer places as a war-like situation has developed in the area following heavy exchange of fire between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) since yesterday. Official sources in Dhubri said that according to information available, the Bangladesh Armymen have also moved into the Bangladesh Rifles posts, while BSF reinforcements have been moved to the border posts. So far one person was killed and eleven others injured in the firing since...

SHILLONG, April 19: The BSF today peacefully regained control over the Pyrdiwah observatory post in Meghalaya when Bangladesh Rifles occupying it since Monday, pulled out and guns fell silent in Mankachar area after a ceasefire was agreed upon, BSF Inspector General (HQ) V K Gaur said, reports PTI. The impasse was resolved a day after the killing of 16 BSF personnel by the BDR at Boribari in Assam. BDR resumes firing: Breaking a luss of three hours, Bangladesh Rifles resumed mortar fire on Indian positions this evenin wounding one civilian at Thakurianbari village of border district Dhubri...