Bangladesh, India exchange gunfire along borders
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-04 21:03

DHAKA - Gunfire flew between border guards from Bangladesh and India on Friday in a dispute over a barbed-wire fence being built along the frontier, a Bangladeshi official said.

The two countries have reinforced border forces and asked civilians to stay away from the frontier at Ramgarh, 250 km southeast of the capital, Dhaka, the senior official from the Bangladesh Rifles border guards said.

India is building the fence along its 4,000 km border with Bangladesh, saying it is fed up with smugglers and rebels crossing the frontier.

"Dozens of gunshots were exchanged as India, defying an agreement, tried to erect a barbed-wire fence on a hill-top along a narrow river that demarcates the two countries," the official said.

There were no injuries on the Bangladesh side and casualties on the India side were unknown, he said.

India and Bangladesh had a longstanding agreement that neither would build any structure within 150 yards of the border, the official said.

The Bangladesh border guards have objected to the fence's route and there are often skirmishes when they believe India's fence builders have strayed inside the no-construction zone.

Sixteen Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers were killed in 2001 in the bloodiest border fence clash.

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