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Tension at the Indo-Bangla border heightened on Wednesday with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes saying that "things have gone out of control" and more security troops had been deployed at the spot.
"There are times when things go out of control and in this particular case, things have unfortunately gone beyond control," said Fernandes in Bangalore, 2060 kilometers south of here.
According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the minister told reporters soon after inaugurating an international aero-show fair that there was tension at the border but New Delhi hoped that the issue would be sorted out soon.
India claimed that 213 people were intercepted on January 31 by Indian Border Security forces while trying to cross into Indian side in the Cooch Behar area of India's east state of West Bengal and they had been detained by Bangladesh Border troops without humanitarian assistance, while Dhaka said they were Indians who spoke Bengali.
In New Delhi, a spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry, Navtej Sarna, told the press that Indian border troops intensified patrolling in surrounding areas to check any kind of infiltration or push in activities by Bangladesh forces.
Reports reaching here said that Bangladesh had carried out "some reinforcement" on the border.
New Delhi offered joint verification of antecedents and nationalities of those stranded on the zero line of the border but "unfortunately" this suggestion was turned down by Dhaka, Sarna said.
Bangladesh High Commission to India Tufail Karim Haider admitted differences between the two sides, saying that "we are talking to each other. They have their views. We have ours."
Alleging that the current crisis had escalated after India tried to push its people into Bangladesh, he told reporters here on Wednesday that "pushing people is use of force and not expected."
Sarna denied the charge, saying that "there is no question of pushing Indian citizens into Bangladesh."
The issue also came up at the Consultative Committee of the Indian parliament with members voicing concern over the continuing tensions between the two countries.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha assured the committee that efforts were being made to resolve the situation at the earliest time through diplomatic means in a friendly and cooperative manner.
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2003)
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