User:Intisar Ul Haque/Naf War

The Naf War was a war fought on 8 January 2000 between the Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh ) and the Burma Border Guard. The battle lasted for three days. The border guards of Bangladesh fought against 2,500 soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles, two divisions of the Myanmar (then Burma ) army and navy, i.e. 25,000 soldiers. About 600 Burmese soldiers were killed in the war and the war ended with a reconciliation meeting between the two sides.

Background
In 1966, an agreement was reached between the then governments of Pakistan and Burma during the border settlement. According to the decision of this agreement, the middle part of the present-day Naf River sector is specified as the border of the two countries. The Naf River has twelve tributaries in Myanmar. As per the agreement, the middle part of the Naf River sector was recognized as the international boundary, so Myanmar could not take any action in those sectors, which would cause major changes in the course of the Naf River. But Myanmar ignored the agreement and built dams on eleven out of twelve rivers by 2000. As a result, the main flow of the Naf River shifted towards Bangladesh and about 2,500 acres of land was lost from the territory of Bangladesh.

In 2000, when Myanmar attempted to build a dam at the last branch, there were several rounds of meetings between the border guards of the two countries. When this dam was built, it was feared that the Bangladesh part of the Naf river would break, so that Teknaf city could disappear, so when the Bangladesh Rifles requested not to build the dam in accordance with the 1966 agreement, the Myanmar border guards sent a letter in rude and unprofessional language."From NASAKA HQ to BDR HQ Bangladesh. We are warning you to behave otherwise we will teach you lessons you will never forget."When diplomatic talks failed, the Bangladesh Rifles decided to stop the dam by using military force.

History
In terms of military position, the military position of Bangladesh was slightly below the position of Myanmar. However, the Bangladesh Rifles identified ammunition sufficiency as the deciding factor in a potential battle.

According to the then Director General of BDR, Major General Alam Fazlur Rahman, he sent different types of ammunition from mortar shells to Cox's Bazar the night before the war started. He ordered half of this to be deployed at Cox's Bazar, while the rest of the ammunition was sent to the main battlefield.

The main battle started on January 8, 2000 at 2:30 PM. General Fazlur Rahman was staying in Dinajpur that day as part of a regular border inspection. From there he ordered the start of the operation through a code word called Bismillah .

The battle took place in Teknaf's Huaikung Union in the area adjacent to Parrot Island. Here the BDR opened fire in front of a bend in the Naf river. About six hundred Myanmar soldiers and dam construction workers were killed in the ambush. Burmese army gathering and casualties in the war received from intelligence sources. Shortly before the war several spies were sent to Burma to collect information. Information from them shows that 25,000 soldiers of the Burmese regular forces, under a major general and a rear admiral, appeared on the battlefield. Compared to that, the military preparedness of Bangladesh was very inadequate (only 2,500 regular army personnel) .A council of the name was headed by the government of Myanmar. The chairman of this council, Senior General Than Shwe, was the head of government of Myanmar, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

General Than Shwe summoned foreign journalists and ambassadors stationed in Rangoon on January 9 and announced that—"We want Bangladesh and us to discuss and settle the disputed issues together without any preconditions."He also sent a letter to Myanmar asking Bangladesh to stop the attack.

Cessation of war
By January 10, the war had subsided due to a unilateral withdrawal from the war. A high-level delegation went to Maungdu, accepting Burma's offer of unconditional talks. The delegation led by the then Joint Secretary (Political) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Zanibul Haque presented Bangladesh's proposals. If no typewriters were provided by Myanmar, a handwritten pledge was signed at the meeting, in which the Myanmar government promised to refrain from any future attempt to build any form of dam on the Naf River.

Significance
Although the Naf War was short-lived in terms of its scope and duration, it had a long-term impact. After this war regular conferences were held at the level of the Border Guards. In recognition of victory in the war, the government of the day awarded a gallant copper medal called Operation Naf Padak to every soldier who participated in the war. For the first time in Bangladesh, BDR won a single victory in a war without the participation of the army. Also the rarest feat achieved by BDR in Naf War is Zero Mortality. In the three-day fierce battle, more than six hundred people were killed on the Burmese side, but not a single person was killed in the BDR. Only a few were shot and injured.