DHAKA: Bangladesh on Saturday lodged a “strong protest” with India over the killing of two of its border guards by Indian security forces, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said members of India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) made “an incursion into Bangladesh territorial waters and killed two Bangladesh Rifles (BDR)” guards. “Bangladesh underscores the fact that it views the actions of the BSF as totally unacceptable,” it said, hoping “Indian authorities will take appropriate action against those responsible and ensure that such incidents do not recur”.

Bangladesh Rifles chief Maj-Gen Shakil Ahmed told AFP the two guards suddenly came under attack by the Indian Border Security Forces at midnight on Thursday. The Indian High Commission in Dhaka, however, said the BSF retaliated after smugglers fired at them. “A BSF constable sustained bullet injuries during the incident,” the embassy said.

In 2001, 16 Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers were killed in the deadliest border clash between the two sides. Last October the border forces’ chiefs of the two countries met in Dhaka and agreed to try to scale down the violence.