Indian police officials said Thursday that Indian and Bangladeshi border guards had clashed over a disputed piece of land on the frontier with the eastern state of West Bengal. "Trouble began when Bangladesh Rifles' (BDR) troops hoisted their flag Wednesday in a tea plantation that came up along the (Indian side of the) border," said Narayan Chandra Ghosh, deputy inspector general of police in West Bengal.

The move prompted an exchange of gunfire in the district of Debijhora, about 390 kilometres (240 miles) from Calcutta, Ghosh said, adding that there had been no casualties. "Heavy firing from the both sides overnight fuelled fears among villagers and they started to vacate their homes. Police helped them to reach safer places, " Ghosh said.
A senior official from the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) said efforts were on to organise a meeting with BDR officiers and defuse the situation. The number of skirmishes between frontier guards along Bangladesh's 1,700-kilometre (1,054 mile) common border with West Bengal have increased in the past few months. Bureau Report