NEW DELHI, India, April 18 -- At least 16 Indian border guards were killed Wednesday in a clash with Bangladeshi troops on the border between the two countries in India's northeastern state of Assam.
In another incident, Bangladesh troops allegedly occupied Pyrduwah village in India's Meghalaya state and are holding at least 20 Indian border guards as hostages.
Indian defense officials have sounded a red alert to the army to be ready for action, if required.
The Press Trust of India quoted India's Home Secretary Kamal Pande as saying that Indian border guards were killed when the Bangladeshi troops resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling in Boraibari in Assam state, targeting a frontier outpost and civilian areas.
India has sent more troops to Pyrduwah village to eject Bangladeshi soldiers.
An Indian government official said that more than 800 Bangladeshi troops entered the frontier over the weekend but were forced back by Indian border guards.
However, Bangladeshi troops returned Monday and occupied a village and captured at least 20 Indian border guards, who have spent the last two days in captivity.
India's foreign ministry Wednesday summoned the Bangladesh High Commissioner Mostafa Farooq Mohammad and asked him to urge Bangladeshi troops to stop incursions.
In 1974, three years after Bangladesh's independence, an agreement was signed between the two countries to work out disputes over the border. A joint working group met in December last year in Delhi to discuss the dispute.
India has a 2,900-mile-long border with Bangladesh and most of it has been demarcated. Several villages along the India-Bangladesh border in northeastern India are disputed and claimed by both the nations.
