India releases 2 Bangladeshi policemen after brief detention for trespassing border

DHAKA: India has released two personnel of Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) after they were briefly detained for trespassing the border, after talks between two border forces, sources said here on Wednesday.

"The two RAB personnel returned home last night following a flag meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)," a source familiar with the development said, without giving details.

According to an unconfirmed report, four RAB men in plainclothes entered a frontier Indian village, crossing Bangladesh's northwestern Dinajpur border, on Tuesday afternoon to consume locally brewed hooch, raising suspicion among villagers as they were carrying weapons.

It said the Indian villagers called the BSF men, suspecting the four men to be robbers.

While two of them were detained, the other two managed to get back to Bangladesh territory after firing gunshots.

The incident prompted the BGB to call their BSF counterpart and eventually the two detained RAB personnel returned following the meeting between a battalion commander of the Bangladeshi border guards and a deputy inspector general (DIG) of BSF.

The BGB and RAB officials, however, were unavailable for comments or confirmation of the incident.

Meanwhile, BSF sources in India said the incident took place in the Raniganj area along the India-Bangladesh international border in West Bengal and a flag meeting was held between the two sides before the Bangladeshi personnel were released.

The situation has been resolved amicably, they said.

Being a special police unit, RAB draws personnel from armed forces alongside regular police service while their detained two men were said to have belonged to police force - one being an official and another a constable

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp