Tension high on India-Bangladesh border<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI\/DHAKA (Reuters): Tension remained high on the border
\nbetween India and Bangladesh on Wednesday amid reports of a troop
\nbuild-up on both sides, raising fears that the skirmishing which
\nkilled 19 soldiers last week could flare again.<\/p>\n
But a foreign ministry spokesman in Dhaka denied Indian
\nsecurity force allegations that Bangladesh had sent
\nreinforcements to the 4,000-km (2,500-mile) frontier.<\/p>\n
He told state-run television late on Tuesday that the
\nsituation was calm and winding down after last week's clashes,
\nwhich strained relations between the usually friendly neighbors.<\/p>\n
Bangladeshi newspapers said India's Border Security Force
\n(BSF) was massing personnel along the ill-defined and winding
\nline which divides India's far-flung northeastern states from
\nBangladesh, panicking citizens in frontier villages.<\/p>\n
Senior Bangladeshi and Indian security officials held a \"flag
\nmeeting\" on Tuesday in India's Tripura state, which juts into the
\neastern side of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
\"We have urged them to pull back their additional troops and
\nstop aggressive patrolling along the border,\" BSF Deputy
\nInspector General of Tripura, Mizoram and Assam's Cachar district
\ntold Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"The Bangladesh sector commander did not give any assurance on
\nreducing the strength of troops, but he agreed to cooperate in
\nmaintaining normalcy on the border.\"<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Indian commanders protested to the Bangladeshi
\nside over an alleged attempt by his troops to occupy a border
\noutpost in Assam state's Karimgang area two days earlier.<\/p>\n
India has said that its 16 troops who were killed in clashes
\nfurther west along the border last week were shot at point-blank
\nrange and \"brutally murdered\".<\/p>\n
The Statesman newspaper said India would insist to Bangladeshi
\nPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina that soldiers found guilty should be
\npunished.<\/p>\n
\"We will wait and see the kind of action she takes, if she
\npunishes the guilty, and calibrate our responses accordingly,\" it
\nquoted an official in Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
\nVajpayee's office as saying.<\/p>\n
In Dhaka, the official BSS news agency said on Tuesday Hasina
\nhad handed cheques for 100,000 taka ($1,852) each to the families
\nof three Bangladeshi soldiers \"who embraced martyrdom\" during the
\nclash.<\/p>\n
Indian commentators have linked the flare-up in tension to
\nforthcoming elections in Bangladesh, where Hasina is accused by
\nrivals of being a New Delhi stooge. They believe it may have been
\nengineered by the opposition to embarrass the prime minister.<\/p>\n
A Bangladeshi opposition-led strike to force Hasina to hold an
\nearly election entered its third and final day on Wednesday. Two
\nmen were killed and nearly 20 injured in violence on the first
\nday of the strike.<\/p>",
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