DHAKA, April 17: Four people were killed in an exchange of fire between Indian and Bangladeshi border troops while their top officials were wrapping up a meeting in Dhaka, security officials said on Sunday. The victims of Saturday’s gunbattle included two soldiers of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and two Bangladeshi villagers, officials on both sides said.

“The bodies of the BSF soldiers including an officer clad in civil dress were lying in Bangladesh territory, some 300 yards from the border line,” said a senior official of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border force.

“We are investigating why they had intruded into our territory,” he said.

The BSF said Bangladeshi troops opened fire without provocation.

“BDR opened fire on a BSF unit which went up to the border to enquire about the whereabouts of a villager Bangladeshis kidnapped on Saturday afternoon,” BSF sector commander Mritunjoy Kumar said in Agartala, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Tripura.

“Our assistant commandant Jeevan Kumar was killed and two personnel were critically hurt,” he said.

Late on Saturday, the chiefs of the BSF and the BDR concluded a five-day meeting in Dhaka without any agreement on ending disputes over India fencing the border. Both countries have also accused each other of harbouring rebels and criminals.

“The meeting ended inconclusively,” said an official. The two sides agreed to meet again in New Delhi, the Indian capital, in about six months.—Reuters