Feb. 26: The border trade between India and Bangladesh resumed today through the region’s checkposts as businessmen looked beyond the crisis triggered by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny yesterday to get on with normal life.

Though business did not return to its previous level, traders of both countries saw its very resumption as a positive sign.

Trade, however, resumed under the watchful eyes of the BSF, which was put on maximum alert along the entire stretch of the 1,880km border that the Northeast shares with Bangladesh.

BSF troops along the Tripura-Mizoram-Cachar and the Assam-Meghalaya frontiers — the groupings under which the force operates in the Northeast — intensified patrolling yesterday.

The inspector-general, BSF, Assam-Meghalaya frontier, Prithvi Raj, told The Telegraph that the BSF men manning the border had been asked not to take any action in haste in case of any provocation from across the border.

BSF deputy inspector-general A.K. Singh said his forces were on maximum alert.

The Akhaura checkpost in Agartala, normally a busy border trade centre, wore a quiet look amidst palpable tension. The import trade commenced duly at 8.30am, but 47 Bangladeshi trucks entered Indian territory while more than a 100 enter on a normal day, the assistant superintendent of customs at the checkpost, S.K. Roy, said.

Trade through Suterkandi checkgate in Cachar was also back to normal. Customs officials at the checkgate said over phone that the movement of trucks resumed this morning as BDR jawans, who were absent at Sheola village on the other side of the border yesterday, reported for duty today.

Sources said 1,100 tonnes of Meghalaya low ash coal were exported to Bangladesh today through this checkpost.

under the supervision of both the BSF and the BDR.

Dohli Khonglah, an exporter in Dawki along the Meghalaya border, said there was no presence of BDR at Tamabil international checkpoint in Bangladesh from 2pm yesterday.