Guwahati: The Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) exchanged heavy fire across border village Lattu, near the Harinagar Border Outpost in Cachar district of Assam, from late Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.

Cachar Superintendent of Police Satyen Gogoi told The Hindu over phone from Silchar that the firing that started on late Tuesday night continued till 7 a.m. on Wednesday. There was no casualty on the Indian side.

The Harinagar Outpost is at the juncture of the Barak, Surama and Kushiara rivers.

There has been a dispute between the two sides over a plot of land along the Surama banks, following a change in the river's course. Bangladeshis started cultivating the land, claiming that it is their territory.

The BSF destroyed the cultivation and posted an Indian flag. But soon the flag was burnt.

The BDR fired from their camp in Uttarkul village under the Zakirganj border outpost of Bangladesh's Sylhet district on June 23 but the BSF did not retaliate, sources said.

BDR mobilising troops

A BSF official said that in the heavy exchange of fire, men of BDR's 38 Rifles battalion used heavy machine guns from the Kinokal border outpost but the BSF retaliated only with light machine gun fire. The BDR had set up temporary bunkers with sand bags and started mobilising troops.

The BDR was the first to resort to "unprovoked firing" in an attempt to grab the land on Indian territory, he said.

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