India returns Bangladeshi teenager shot dead at border

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Indian officials handed over the body of a 14-year-old girl to Bangladesh on Thursday after she was found shot dead near the border, with a senior Indian official vowing to stop the “infiltration.”

Neighbourly relations were strained by the student-led uprising that led to the overthrow of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5.

Since Hasina's ouster, Indian security forces have arrested or sent back dozens of Bangladeshis accused of trying to cross the border secretly.

Indian border officials said the young girl was found with a gunshot wound during a routine patrol in Tripura state on Sunday, but did not provide further details.

According to Binoy Bhushon Roy, a police officer in the border district of Moulvibazar, Bangladesh police accuse Indian officials of killing the girl, who was shot in the chest.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of the Indian state of Assam, said police on Thursday managed to “push back” five more Bangladeshis who tried to cross the border.

“We are committed to an infiltration-free Assam,” Sarma said in a statement, praising the police for their “constant vigilance along the India-Bangladesh border.”

Bangladesh is almost completely surrounded by India and their shared border stretches for more than 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles).

Last month, there were heated clashes between Indian and Bangladeshi security forces over the construction of a fence supposedly to prevent livestock from crossing the border.

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