BSF BDR FOOTBALL MATCH

The Border Security Force (BSF) played and won a football match with Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). Elsewhere, a team of Bangladeshi boys and the BSF engaged in a game of hide and seek.

In the first match, BSF (Shillong frontier) and BDR (Sylhet frontier) fought their hearts out to win. Although, the players’ skills were nowhere close to Zidane’s, but thankfully his kind of head-butts were also absent.

During the course of the match non-partisan crowd from this small border town of Dawki cheered both the teams. Across the border, on Bangladeshi hilltops, spectators watched and cheered their team.
The ice was melted at the end when BSF IG (Shillong frontier) named Md. Feroz Hussain BDR’s goalie as the ‘player of match.’

Ironically, Hussain’s brave efforts could not save his team from BSF pumping in four goals, two each in each halves of the match. BSF won the match 4-0 after 90 minutes of dominance.

In the other game, hoards of Bangladeshi children tore down the nearby hill tops inside India to watch the football match from close quarters. It was tough for the BSF jawans to search the kids hiding behind trees and bushes and chase them away constantly.

In one such incident, a Bangladeshi boy stood still with his hands raised after being cornered by BSF personnel. What was noticeable was the nervous blush on his face knowing the game wasn’t over.

He gave the BSF personnel a slip and disappeared behind the bushes after the BSF jawan asked him to return to Bangladesh, only for another hoard of children to return. The scores were level in this game!

“Results don’t matter,” BSF IG (Shillong frontier) PK Mishra said. “It’s a beautiful beginning. Families of BSF and BDR are interacting and sharing quality time… that’s important,” BDR Sector Commandant (Sylhet frontier) Abdul Hossain added on the newfound bonhomie between BSF and BDR.

Earlier, it was nice to see for once Indians carrying their injured Bangladeshi counterpart on stretchers and administrating medical aid during the match. A far cry from the pictures of April 2001 when 15 BSF jawans were hauled on bamboo poles after being killed by BDR near Boraibari, Assam.

This stretch of the Indo-Bangla border in Tamabil is not fenced due to opposition from a handful of local organisations. This area is in “adverse possession” of India and claimed by Bangladesh. It is therefore difficult to tell when a person is inside India or Bangladesh.

Other children, like Sami and Safin, who accompanied their parents from Bangladesh as part of the BDR invitees, were thrilled: “the match between India and Bangladesh was good. We like India and want to come back again”.

BSF team would tour Sylhet, Bangladesh and play a volleyball match there soon. “There would be cultural programmes too,” informed the BDR Sylhet Sector Commandant.

In this entire friendly match, the Bangladeshi team may have lost the match, but their friendly demeanour on and off the pitch won many hearts.