All 13 SSB personnel were handed over to the Indian side after an investigation.
A group of personnel from the India's Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were briefly detained today by the Nepal police after they inadvertently crossed the border while chasing a gang of smugglers.
The smugglers were trying to take petro products into Nepal without going through border checks in Jhapa district bordering Bihar. The SSB personnel, some of whom were not armed, had followed them. They were later released by the Nepal authorities.
Nepal's Armed Police Force (APF) personnel deployed at the Border Account Post at in Jhapa district, bordering Bihar's Kishanganj, arrested the SSB jawans around 6:30 am, according to Nepal Police sources. Four SSB jawans were carrying modern rifles, they said.
Assistant Chief District Officer Dambaru Prasad Niraula said they were handed over to the Indian side after an investigation into the incident.
The relation between India and Nepal has nosedived in recent months as Indian-origin Madhesis started a protest against Nepal's new Constitution. The protesters have blocked key border trade points with India, causing severe shortages of fuel and other essentials in the country.
Last week, India hit out at Nepal for "shifting" blame of atrocities inside its "volatile" Sunsari district on the SSB after Nepal alleged that the paramilitary personnel entered 100 m inside Nepalese territory and fired at the four unarmed Nepalese nationals while chasing a group of chemical fertilizer smugglers. All four men had been injured.
The Indian embassy in Kathmandu said the border guards fired at the smugglers in self-defence while inside Indian territory.
Today, Indian officials in New Delhi said the patrol party followed the lead of two jawans -- Constables Roshan and Ramprasad of the 12th SSB battalion -- and had "inadvertently" crossed 50 metres into Nepal's Khuntanmani village. They were quizzed by the Nepal police after the villagers called in the authorities.
SSB Director General B D Sharma said there has been no 'bodily harm' to the SSB personnel and that they have been extended due courtesies by the Nepal Armed Police.
The paramilitary force guards the 1,751 km-long open frontier with Nepal.