DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has officially regretted the death of a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) soldier and expressed willingness to work together to prevent any such incident in the future, said the foreign ministry.

“The BSF formally regretted the death of Sepoy Mohammad Roisuddin on 22 January and the BGB and BSF expressed hope that they will work together to prevent a repeat of this incident,” said Seheli Sabrin, foreign affairs ministry’s spokeswoman, at the weekly briefing yesterday.

On January 22, a patrol team of BGB 49 Battalion intercepted a group of cattle smugglers after they crossed into Bangladesh near Dhanyakhola Border Outpost from India, according to BGB.

The smugglers tried to flee towards India as they were chased by the BGB team.

At one stage, Roisuddin got detached from his team in the dense fog. He could not be found immediately. It was learnt later in the day that the BGB soldier was undergoing treatment at an Indian hospital after being injured in BSF firing.

Immediately after the incident, a battalion commander-level flag meeting was held and it was known that the soldier died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

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