India calls for professional conduct of BDR

India on Wednesday condemned the Bangladesh Rifles for the killing of a Border Security Force constable on Monday in unprovoked firing.

India called for 'restraint and professional conduct' from the Bangladesh Rifles to ensure peace and tranquility along the border.

Constable Rajendra Kumar Sharma was killed when Indian border guards chasing a gang of Bangladeshi cattle smugglers were fired upon by the BDR in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Monday.

Noting that India 'views with concern the latest incident of unprovoked firing by the BDR on a BSF patrol party on Ichhamati river', the Indian high commission in Dakha said it 'strongly emphasises the need for restraint and professional conduct by the BDR in order to ensure peace and tranquility along the border'.

'The High Commission of India is dismayed at what appears to be an attempt by the BDR to provide protection to cattle smugglers while, at the same time, indulging in a disinformation campaign of shifting the blame on to the BSF for such incidents,' it said in a statement.

A BSF boat patrol party from border outpost Soladana, while patrolling in river Ichhamati on June 12, seized 15 cattle heads that were being smuggled into Bangladesh, it said.

However, the BSF patrol party, which was well inside Indian territory, came under unprovoked fire from the BDR from the border outpost of Padmashankar, which resulted in Sharma's death.