NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
After hours of controversy, India late Friday night accepted "highly mutilated" bodies of 15 Border Security Force men killed by Bangladesh Rifles in border clashes, even as New Delhi virtually absolved Dhaka of being behind the skirmishes.
"Almost all the bodies brought by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) were highly mutilated and beyond recognition. We have now accepted them," a senior BSF officer said after the Indian authorities had refused to accept them initially.
When the bodies were brought by Col Sadiqul Islam of the 8th BDR battalion at a checkpost near here after darkness, they were refused as they were in a "very bad shape and in a state of decomposition", the officer said.
India accepted the bodies after a flag meeting between BSF and BDR commanders at Kamalpur in Bangladesh held in the night after an earlier meeting at Kakrepara on the Indian side had failed to resolve the issue.
The bodies were handed over without the weapons carried by the killed soldiers and the issue would have to be sorted out with BDR, the officer said.
Official sources said the bodies bore marks of torture and strangulation.
EARLIER REPORTIndia refuses to accept bodies
The Complete Coverage
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report