The private Bdnews24 news agency quoted Foreign Ministry officials as saying that one Indian survey vessel backed by two Navy ships intruded into Bangladeshi waters for hydrocarbon exploration. Maritime officials earlier said the Indian vessels started their exploration activities some 140 nautical miles southwest off Mongla seaport.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman later added said an Indian survey ship was seen in the deep-sea block 14 in the maritime area claimed by Bangladesh under its Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Act 1974. He said the survey ship was escorted by two other “support vessels” adding that a Bangladesh Navy patrol vessel at the scene asked the Indian ship to leave Bangladesh waters.

The spokesman said the survey ship initially moved towards Indian waters but “later came back to the earlier location where they were again located in the afternoon of December 25, 2008”. “When our Navy vessel again asked it to leave Bangladesh waters, the ship replied that it was in Indian waters,” he said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain said, “We will file a diplomatic protest note by tomorrow to get the Indian vessels to depart.” Foreign Adviser of the interim government Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury added that an investigation was ordered. “We will take whatever action is deemed appropriate on the basis of the results of the investigation,” Chowdhury told PTI. Bangladesh Navy frigate Khalid bin Walid and another battleship were sent to the scene last night.

The Foreign Ministry later in a statement said Bangladesh would lodge a formal protest with New Delhi about “the activities of the survey ship in Bangladeshi waters”. It added that Dhaka would ask for postponement of any “exploratory or development activity in adjoining areas till such time as the maritime boundary between the two countries is settled by mutual agreement.”

Bangladesh has disputes with India on territorial waters and the two countries held three-day talks on the issue this October after a gap of 28 years. Dhaka and New Delhi at that time agreed to hold further talks to settle the dispute, as they could not each a consensus on the mid-flow of the cross-boundary Hariabhanga River, considered crucial for demarcation of the maritime border.

Incidentally, a similar row broke out between Bangladesh and Myanmar last month after a South Korean firm escorted by Myanmar ships started exploration work off its coast.

After a military standoff, with mobilisation of warships in the Bay of Bengal and troops activated at the border by the two countries, Bangladesh and Myanmar held talks on maritime boundary, but they ended inconclusively.