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200 Indian Muslims Flee To Bangladesh: Officials
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Troops
from both sides of the nuclear rivals exchanged heavy fire,
forcing migration of border villages to safer areas
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DHAKA, May 18 (News Agencies) - Some 200 Muslims from the riot-torn Indian state of Gujarat have fled to Bangladesh fearing for their safety, Bangladeshi officials said Saturday, news agencies reported.
They said the first group entered Bangladesh on May 5 and others followed, crossing the border into the districts of Narail and Satkhira, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
More than 1,000 people have been killed, most of them Muslims, in two-and-a-half months of communal riots in Gujarat, a western state on the opposite side of India to Bangladesh.
"Nearly 200 permanent residents of India's Ahmedabad city crossed the international border and took refuge in Bangladesh," police in Narail were quoted as saying by Bangladesh's official BSS news agency. Foreign ministry officials in Dhaka confirmed the development.
One man, Nawsher Sheikh, was quoted by BSS as saying they went to the eastern Indian city of Calcutta by train and crossed the border with the help of a middleman.
A foreign ministry source said Indian High Commissioner Monilal Tripathi was summoned to the ministry and was told about the development last week.
It was not known if the Muslims were Indians or Bangladeshis living in Gujarat.
Riots broke out in Gujarat after an allegedly Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu hardliners, killing 58 people, on February 27.
The Gujarat government, run by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu-nationalist BJP party, has been accused of turning a blind eye to subsequent attacks on Muslims.
Meanwhile, Indian troops started heavy shelling of border villages in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir early Saturday, officials said.
The bombardment began at 6:30 am (0030 GMT) in Chamb sector in the southern Bhimber district, Bhimber Deputy Commissioner Fayyaz Abbasi told AFP.
"The shelling is continuing but we are yet to receive reports of any losses," he said, adding "they are using machine guns, mortars and artillery."
Chamb faces Nowshera district in the Jammu region of the Indian-administered zone of the divided Kashmir state.
Officials said there was also Indian shelling in Chakothi sector, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the state capital Muzaffarabad.
The shelling began at 9:40 am and was continuing around midday, senior police officer Raja Ghulam Sarwar said.
The Indians were targeting Chakothi's main bazaar and shops had closed for safety, Sarwar said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
"People may move to safer places because the shelling is heavy," he said.
Earlier, defence sources in Indian-controlled Kashmir's summer capital Jammu said several thousand villagers were fleeing to safer ground as Indian and Pakistani troops clashed along the disputed border.
They said at least three dozen Indian villages were targeted by Pakistani mortar shelling which began late Friday and continued on Saturday.
Pakistan's army Friday said four civilians were killed and 40 others wounded in "unprovoked" Indian firing on border villages on the Pakistan side in Kashmir.
"The Pakistan army retaliated effectively and targeted the enemy's military positions causing considerable damage," an army statement said, adding that Indian troops were seen removing their dead and wounded.
Cross-border shelling along the dividing Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir has intensified since an attack Tuesday on a passenger bus and army base in Indian-controlled Jammu, which killed 35 people.
India has blamed Pakistani militants for the massacre.
Pakistan has denied the charge and demanded an impartial investigation into the attack.
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