PADUA CALM AS BSF RETREATS
after BDR protest
Staff Correspondent
The situation on the Padua frontier in Pratappur returned to normal on Wednesday, a day after the Indian border guards tried to occupy a large swathe of land triggering tension on the borders.
Brigadier general Obaidul Haque, deputy director general of the Bangladesh Rifles, told New Age on Wednesday night that tension was defused as the BSF left the area they had intruded into.
Quoting colonel Akhtaruzzaman, commander in the Sylhet sector headquarters of the BDR, New Age correspondent in Sylhet on Wednesday reported that the members of the Border Security Forces of India retreated on Tuesday afternoon after members of the Bangladesh Rifles went there and asked them to leave the Bangladesh territory.
全ituation in Padua and Pratappur has returned to normal Tuesday evening,・the BDR official said after returning to Sylhet from the spot.
He said the Indian border guards, who intruded into the Bangladesh territory and tried to occupy about 200 acres farmland along the Padua and Pratappur frontiers, had left the area in the face of resistance from the BDR.
Colonel Akhtaruzzaman said that on Tuesday evening he had talked with the BSF痴 deputy inspector general in Shillong in the Indian state of Meghalaya over phone about the BSF痴 intrusion. 
羨 flag-meeting at the battalion commander-level between the border guards of the two countries will be held soon to discuss the issue,・he said.
But locals in Jaintapur frontier area said that the Bangladesh Rifles had intensified patrol in the area from Tuesday afternoon, following the incident.
About 80 BSF members along with 30 to 40 Khasia tribesmen crossed into the Bangladesh territory at midday Tuesday and tried to occupy some 250 acres of farmland in Padua ignoring the warning signal of BDR personnel.
They retreated after the BDR promptly built up resistance, the sources said. 
The Indian side claimed ownership of over 500 acres of land close to border pillars number 1270, 1271, 1272, 1273.
The BDR personnel made an instant protest, hoisted red flag and asked the BSF intruders to quit the Bangladesh territory. The BSF men, who at first declined to leave the area, retreated after the BDR issued a red alert.