The impasse between traders and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel ended following an hour-long meeting with SSB officials and office-bearers of traders’ organisation of Krishna Nagar town of Nepal and Barhni town of Siddharthnagar district on Wednesday.
This led to restoration of normalcy in Barhni town on the Indo-Nepal border.
SK Singh, the SSB assistant commandant deployed on the Indo-Nepal border, said all disputes with the traders had been resolved.
Markets in towns on India and Nepal sides of the border reopened on Wednesday and business activities began there as usual, Singh added. The Sashastra Seema Bal jawans were upset ever since some Nepali residents, allegedly involved in smuggling, pelted stones at them from across the border on Sunday.
The jawans patrolling the porous Indo-Nepal border had adopted a tough posture as two jawans had sustained injuries. Nepalese living on the border are heavily dependent on supply of salt, vegetables and oil from India. They daily cross over to Indian side to purchase these things. However, this process had been curtailed since Sunday.
It was something that Nepalese claimed was a violation of the Indo-Nepal treaty of 1950. The treaty states that people of both the countries would be free to move into each other’s territories without any checks. Following the incident, SSB officials had demanded stringent action against those involved in the stone-pelting incident.
{{/usCountry}}It was something that Nepalese claimed was a violation of the Indo-Nepal treaty of 1950. The treaty states that people of both the countries would be free to move into each other’s territories without any checks. Following the incident, SSB officials had demanded stringent action against those involved in the stone-pelting incident.
{{/usCountry}}Sources said the Nepal police arrested the accused and informed the SSB officials. But, the SSB personnel were not satisfied by the action taken by the Nepali police. In the meantime, enraged over the tough stance adopted by the SSB jawans, traders of Barhni town of India and in Krishna Nagar had given a bandh call on Tuesday that had evoked a good response. Traders had also staged a demonstration to express their anger and blamed the SSB personnel for creating hurdle in the movement of people across the border.
However, SSB public relation officer OP Sahu said on Monday some of the youths were carrying huge quantity of betel nuts. When SSB jawans stopped them, the youths managed to sneak into the Nepal side of border, leaving cartons of betel nuts behind.
The situation worsened when miscreants, along with some traders, pelted stones on SSB jawans.