page_title: Sarwar Azam
section_title: Bangladesh Rifles (now known as Border Guard)
hierarchical_section_title: Sarwar Azam / Military career / Bangladesh Rifles (now known as Border Guard)
caption_attribution_description: English: Army officers meeting with military dictator, CMLA and President Hossain M Ersad
context_page_description: Colonel Sahibzada Shahid Sarwar Azam FIEB is the current head of the Singranatore family.
  In his military career spanning three decades, he was in Deputy Command of the armed forces of the United Nations after the onset of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 2002 in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Republic Armed Forces and Police to provide support to the Special Court for Sierra Leone following the arrest of former Revolutionary United Front leaders and Government minister on charges of war crimes, and enforce the Community Arms Collection and Development Program introduced by the United Nations Development Program in collaboration with the local paramount chiefs where neighbouring conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia had resulted in an influx of refugees in the area. His younger brother, a Lieutenant Colonel of the Bangladesh Army also served at the United Nations Mission in Sudan in 2005.
  Following his service to the UN in West Africa, he commanded the Rajshahi and Khagrachari fronts of the Border Guard Bangladesh during clashes with the Banga Sena and Indian BSF in the North West and during the aftermath of the Shanti Bahini operations in the South East.
context_section_description: The Bangladesh–India border, or more specially the Radcliffe Line of 1947 put strains on the Sovereign governments of Bangladesh and India since the former's independence in 1971. Notable conflicts included India-Bangladesh Muhurichar Island Border Conflicts of 1975, 1979 and 1985. This escalated to armed conflicts between the two militaries in the early 2000s (decade). The 2001 Indian–Bangladeshi border conflict was a brief armed conflict in April 2001 between India and Bangladesh over the poorly marked international border between the countries. As of April 2011, it was the first and only such major conflict between the two countries who have maintained friendly relations since the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The Partition of Bengal in 1947 left a poorly demarcated international border between India and Bangladesh (then-East Pakistan). Ownership of several villages on both sides of the de facto border were disputed and claimed by both countries. The dispute over the demarcation of the Indo-Bangladeshi border worsened due to the existence of over 190 enclaves.
  One of the disputed areas was a small sliver of land near the village of Pyrdiwah which the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) had occupied since the 1971 liberation of Bangladesh. The village was one of the Indian exclaves near the border of Bangladesh with the Indian state of Meghalaya. Bangladesh claimed that the village was within its territory. Five battalions of the 19th division of the Bangladesh Army, with additional personnel from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), attacked the positions of India's Border Security Force at Pyrdiwah at 01:00 hours on 16 April 2001. India claimed that Bangladeshi troops overran and occupied the village, which was near the town of Dauki, and that Bangladeshi forces were holding more than 20 Indian soldiers hostage. However, Bangladesh insisted that Indian forces launched an early-morning attack on their posts in the frontier district of Kurigram, which lay on the border with the Indian state of Assam, on the morning of 16 April. Indian forces eventually responded but failed to retake the village. The combat remained limited to the border troops of the respective nations, though mortars were used in addition to automatic weapons fire. Between 10,000 and 20,000 villagers living in the area fled the fighting, with at least 17 suffering wounds. Several villages were destroyed or heavily damaged in the fighting. 16 Indian and 2 Bangladeshi troops died during the conflict. Top Indian border security sources claimed that the BDR personnel had retreated in the Meghalaya sector, while in the Assam sector, the Indian BSF had vacated positions seized from Bangladesh. Fresh clashes erupted along the India–Bangladesh border just hours after both sides voiced regret for the recent killings, but by midnight of 20 April firing had again stopped. An article reported that 6,000 Indian civilians had fled the region, and Indian government officials were attempting to convince villagers to return to their homes. The Indian BSF agreed to take back bodies of five of its soldiers at Rowmari sector, whilst the other 11–17 were classified as 'missing'. Bangladesh later agreed to return the dead Indian soldiers the next day. Upon examining the bodies of the dead personnel, India alleged that the BSF men were tortured before being shot dead. Three Bangladeshi soldiers were also killed: two during combat and another who died of wounds sustained during operations.
  April 2001, Bangladesh's then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke to then-Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and agreed to order a high-level investigation over the incident, especially the torture of BSF men. The two leaders spoke again a month later, and Hasina "expressed regrets" over the border skirmish. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Raminder Jassal reported that both India and Bangladesh would improve diplomatic channels and promised to exercise restraint in the future. India and Bangladesh started talks in March 2002 to resolve their border disputes. By July 2001, the two sid
caption: Major Sarwar Azam (second from right) with former military ruler and President of Bangladesh, Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad (right) at a meeting in the 1980s
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