Situation along Indo-Nepal border ‘almost normal’

Border guarding force SSB on Tuesday said the tense situation along India-Nepal frontier is getting almost “normal” and rejected as “purely political” the allegations of its indulgence in precipitating the situation.

“The situation along the border is almost normal now except at Raxaul (along Bihar) where some protests are happening. All kind of allegations against us are political...on both the sides. We are not doing anything (to add to the disturbances on the border),” Sashastra Seema Bal chief B D Sharma told reporters during the forces’ 52nd Raising Day here.

He said that at present, there are about 2,000 trucks and other vehicles waiting to cross the border and these figures have come down in the last few days when there were over 4,500 vehicles stranded.

The DG said India wants to have “good relations” with Nepal as he said the recent incident where an SSB patrol was briefly detained by Nepalese border guards was an “aberration.” 

“It was a bad incident and an abberation. I think it was not done. There were some mistakes on part of our men. We have ordered an inquiry as we have the highest respect for the sovereignty of Nepal. I have passed instructions to my men that they should not go to the other side in any case without the approval of the Nepalese Armed Police,” he said.

Sharma said sometimes “human error” takes place in these areas as the 1,751-km Indo-Nepal border is not clearly demarcated.

“The incident on that day was brief detention and our troops were treated nicely. We have the highest respect for our Nepalese counterparts. We have helped their troops and officials when the Madhesi protests were happening and they had taken shelter in our border posts with arms,” he said.