DHAKA, Bangladesh - A border clash Friday left two Bangladeshi troops dead and one Indian soldier seriously wounded, military officials said.
The clash occurred when an Indian border patrol vessel tried to prevent cattle from being smuggled into Bangladesh on a boat, said Ashish Kumar Mitra, the head of India's Border Security Force.
The Indian forces were monitoring the boat in the pre-dawn darkness when they were fired upon without warning, Mitra said.
The Indian troops retaliated, believing they were being targeted by the smugglers, he said.
The director of operations of the Bangladesh Rifles border force gave a slightly different version of events.
Col. Mohammad Abdul Halim said the Indian Border Force patrol boat entered Bangladeshi waters and when a Bangladeshi Rifles vessel challenged them to leave, the Indians opened fire.
The incident took place off the coast of Raghunathpur in Chapainawabganj district, 145 miles (233 kilometers) west of Dhaka, Halim said.
The Bangladesh Rifles arrested an Indian citizen, Anjam Hossain, and seized a boat at the scene, he said. Hossain was wounded in the exchange of gunfire, Halim said without elaborating.
"We are questioning him," Halim said.
Officers from the two sides would meet later Friday to discuss the incident, Mitra and Halim said.
Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told the United News of Bangladesh agency that his ministry was treating the incident as serious.
"Such incidents are condemnable and totally unacceptable," Chowdhury said.
Skirmishes are common along the two South Asian nations' porous 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) border. - AP