India’s Border Security Force (BSF) concocted an entirely fictitious narrative of the occurrences on 17 October 2019 that lead to one of their personnel being shot dead, another injured during an exchange of fire with Border Guard Bangladesh deep inside Bangladesh’s territory.
At 10 am a joint party of Border Guard Bangladesh and Bangladesh Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock officials detected three Indian fishermen illegally fishing inside Bangladesh’s Padma river.
Indian fisherman Pranab Mondol, 45 hailing from Chhirachar village of Murshidabad district of West Bengal was arrested but the two others in his company managed to flee the BGB patrol team. About 4kg of hilsha fish and current nets were seized from the Indian fisherman’s possession.
A couple of hours later an Indian Border Security Force (BSF) speedboat carrying four troops illegally entered 650 yards inside Bangladesh and the personnel from the boat started behaving in an aggressive manner towards the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) patrol team.
The BSF men demanded the release of the Indian fishermen immediately however the BGB told them there is an official process, a flag meeting must be held before they can handover the detained Indian fisherman.
The BSF men panicked at the BGB’s refusal to handover the Indian fishermen then began assaulting the detailed civilian in BGB custody. BGB repeatedly them to stop the abuse but the BSF turned the gun on BGB and shot 6 to 8 rounds at BGB. The BGB opened fire with several bursts of their automatic weapons forcing the Indian border guards to flee. The BSF continued to fire whilst they were fleeing to the Indian side of the border.
It was later revealed during a flag meeting held between the battalion commanders of the 1 BGB Battalion and the 117 BSF Battalion about the casualties. BSF Commandant KS Mehta tried to falsely suggest to BGB CO Lt Col Mahmud that BGB men attacked the BSF personnel in an unprovoked manner but the BGB pointed out what had happened.
Photographic evidence emerged clearly showing there was no flag meeting. BSF personnel entered Bangladesh territory in a completely illegal matter without informed BGB beforehand. There were also no officers present in the BSF party. The men were wearing shorts. No officers, no proper uniforms, no real flag meeting.
Head Constable Vijay Bhan Singh was declared dead resulting in a gunshot wound to the head, another Rajvir Yadav suffered injuries to the right hand during the encounter. The Indian fisherman Pranab Mondal from Murshidabad district of West Bengal was sent to jail after BGB Habildar Humayun Kabir filed two cases against him for trespassing and catching egg-carrying hilsha defying a Bangladesh government ban that was put in place to conserve the species. In legal terms the Indian fisherman was imprisoned for violation of the Control of Entry Act, 1952 and Protection and Conservation of Fish Act, 1950.
The 1 BGB Battalion CO Lt Col Mahmud held a press conference and informed the media about the incident. A video was published on Defseca.com’s official social media account.
Earlier Indian media falsely claimed a “BSF Major” was killed during the incident even though the rank of “Major” does not exist within BSF’s organisational structure. This was addressed by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members at the press conference as well.
Full account of the BSF’s intrusion in to Bangladesh on 17 October 2019.
