2001 Bangladesh-India border conflict

On April 15 and 16, 2001, clashes occurred between the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) (now BGB) and India's Border Security Force (BSF) at Padua on the Sylhet border, on April 18 at Roumari in Kurigram, and again on April 19 at the Padua border. The clashes took place along the poorly marked international border between the two countries. Bangladesh's BDR forces emerged victorious in all three battles.

Reasons

The Director General of BDR at that time was Major General ALM Fazlur Rahman.

During the Partition of Bengal in 1947, some international borders between India and Bangladesh remained unresolved, which both countries claim as their own. The situation along the Indo-Bangladeshi border continued to worsen for 190 enclaves.

One of the disputed areas was a small plot of land near the village of Padua measuring 230 acres. It is located on the border between Bangladesh and the Indian state of Meghalaya. In 1971, the site was used by the Indian military to train the Bangladesh Liberation Army. After the independence of Bangladesh, India claimed this land as theirs, but the Indian Border Guard established a camp here in 1971. At that time, there were 111 enclaves of India inside Bangladesh and 50 enclaves of Bangladesh inside India. The village of Padua was Indian-dominated, but was legally Bangladesh-owned territory (until the new border agreement and population exchange). Ethnically, Khasias lived here. Later, a personal interview of the then Director General of BDR Major General ALM Fazlur Rahman was published in which he claimed that the BSF at that time had their camp in Padua and 10 km. Road construction was started in 'no man's land' to connect another far-flung camp that actually fell within the Bangladesh border.

Case

In the third week of April 2001, clashes broke out between the Bangladesh Rifles (now BGB) and the Border Security Force (BSF) of India. which was organized along the poorly marked international border between the two countries. On 15 and 16 April 2001, BDR clashed with the Indian BSF at Padua on Sylhet border and again on 19 April at Padua border. In all these three battles, the soldiers of BDR of Bangladesh won the victory. Since 1971, Bangladesh has been complaining that the BSF has carried out various illegal activities in Padua, Bangladesh. At one stage BSF started illegal road construction there. But according to international law and the India-Bangladesh border agreement, building roads there is illegal. Despite repeated bans from Bangladesh, they continue to build roads. In this situation, the then BDR (now BGB) increased its strength and occupied Padua. After 2 days of this incident, after being defeated by BDR in the battle of Padua, 80 km from Padua to take revenge and teach Bangladesh an extreme lesson. Far away in Kurigram district, Indian BSF entered the border of Bangladesh and attacked BDR's Baraibari base with heavy weapons. Before this incident, BSF had sent a mysterious letter to Baraibari Camp Commander of BDR Nazrul Islam for flag meeting. Camp Commander Nazrul Islam rejected the letter as it was mysterious and suspicious. Actually this flag meeting letter was a trap by BSF for flag meeting. When some BDR members went, BSF abducted them from the Indian border and detained them in the BSF camp. Later, it was reported from the Indian side that the BDR members tried to enter the Indian border and attack the BSF, so they were detained. If this plan was successful, the BSF Its Baraibari operation was a complete success. So BDR's Baraibari camp commander Nazrul Islam did not step into the trap of Indian BSF. When no signal came from BDR after 2 hours, BSF officials sat in an emergency meeting and decided to make final preparations to attack Barai house. For this, hundreds of BSF and various weapons were brought from Gohati in Assam to attack Barai House. Earlier, a villager named Lal Mia went to irrigate at 3 am and saw hundreds of Indian BSF armored vehicles, machine guns, various weapons and a large number of soldiers crossing the barbed wire fence and preparing to attack the Baraibari base. Ask where is the BDR camp? Then Lal Mia showed them another abandoned house like BDR camp and BSF mistook it for camp Keep moving forward. Then Lal Mia informed the BDR members of Baraibari camp about this incident. The BDR personnel then took the villagers to a safe place and prepared to engage the Indian BSF. Some villagers help BDR members. After 1 hour BSF personnel started attacking Baraibari camp. After 10 minutes, the battle started when 11 BDR personnel stationed at Baraibari base launched a counter attack. The BDR men started firing with machine guns. 700 rounds can be fired in 1 minute with these machine guns. Then the BSF personnel got surprised and BSF soldiers and some officers started falling on the ground under BDR's retaliatory firing. Then after some time BSF started raining fire like mentally unbalanced. As a result, Lance Naik Wahid Mia of BDR, Sepoy Mahfuz, Sepoy Abdul Quader of 26 Rifles Battalion were killed. Many were injured. It was reported from Dhaka that two Bangladeshi BDR members were killed and 16 BSF members were killed in this battle lasting about 2 days. After getting information from the villagers, 6 more BDR members from neighboring Hijlamari camp along with BDR members from Baraibari base fought against the Indian BSF. Then additional BDR personnel from Rangpur, Jamalpur, Mymensingh and Kurigram reached Baraibari under the direction of BDR HQ to reinforce the BDR attack and drive the invading BSF out of Bangladesh soil, forcing the Indian BSF to retreat and surrender. Before leaving the land of Bangladesh, the Indian BSF (who were alive) cowardly destroyed some Bangladeshi houses with mortar shells and set fire to some houses and farms. But the people of the houses went to safe places under the supervision of BDR members, so they were not harmed. About 2 crores of government property was damaged. Later the matter was settled through the mediation of Delhi and Dhaka and the war came to an end.

Result

After both governments intervened, both sides returned to their original positions and restored the status quo. Fresh clashes broke out along the Indo-Bangladesh border just hours after both sides expressed regret for the recent killings, but a ceasefire resumed by midnight on 20 April. Reports indicated that 6,000 Indian civilians had fled the region, and Indian government officials attempted to persuade the villagers to return to their homes. The following day, Bangladesh agreed to return the 16 deceased Indian soldiers. After examining the bodies of the slain soldiers, India alleged that the BSF personnel had been tortured before being shot dead. On the other hand, three Bangladeshi soldiers also died: two during the battle and one from injuries sustained during the battle.

Observers have described the incident as a political tactic to stoke nationalist fervor ahead of the Bangladesh elections (which were 2 months away) and an act of audacity by BDR commanders. Officially, the Bangladesh government denied supporting the BDR's initiation of hostilities and referred to the incident as "the audacity of its local commanders".