Indo-Nepal standoff overboard at border

Close on the heels of Nepal Parliament approving a new political map, wherein it claimed its territorial jurisdiction over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in Uttarakhand, the Nepal government erected a board on the no-man’s land near Bihar’s Raxaul district.

The board, put up by the Nepalese government on Tuesday, was clearly an attempt by the Himalayan Kingdom to usurp the no-man’s land near Raxaul’s Customs Office.

However, the matter was brought to the notice of the Sashtra Seema Bal (SSB). The Deputy Commandant of the SSB, Manoj Kumar, rushed to the disputed site and foiled Nepal’s attempt to encroach upon the no-man’s land on Bihar-Nepal border.

“Office of the District Police, Parsa, Birganj. The border starts,” read the new board put by the Home Department of Nepal government near Raxaul’s Custom’s office. “India’s Immigration Office is also a stone’s throw from the disputed site,” said a senior SSB official.

Bihar and Nepal share around 850 kms long porous border. This is the fourth major dispute with the neighbourly nation on the border since last month.

On June 12, the Nepal police reportedly shot dead a man and injured another after an altercation near Sitamarhi-Nepal border. The following day, i.e on June 13, the Nepalese authorities buried an unknown body on the border saying the unclaimed body was that of a Covid-19 patient.

More recently, on June 26, the Nepal Police withdrew its temporary camp it had set up at Pankotia village in Raxaul.

Apart from these incidents, the Nepalese authorities in the last week of June prevented Bihar engineers to carry out fortification of 2.5 km-long embankment on Lal Bakey river, claiming the 500 metres of the embankment fell in the Nepalese territory. Prevention of fortification may lead to flooding of Bihar areas during monsoon.