Krishnaganj, Dec. 17: Two smugglers from Bangladesh were killed in Govindapur village of Nadia’s Krishnaganj located along the international border when BSF personnel allegedly opened fire to thwart a cattle smuggling attempt during the early hours of Sunday morning.
BSF sources said that the miscreants, who were at least twenty in a group, trying to cut open the barbed wire fencing, when the vigilant BSF jawans attached to Battalion 32 opened fire killing the two smugglers on the spot. The other smugglers, however, managed to escape amid the darkness. The incident occurred near a border outpost of BSF.
The BSF authorities did not officially disclose the identity of slain rustlers. However, police and other sources claimed that they were identified as Mohammed Sajedur Rahaman, 27, and Mohammed Khwaja Moinudduin, 30, who were residents of Chhoygharia village of Darshana in Chuadanga district of Bangladesh.
BSF sources claimed that the armed miscreants had attacked the BSF jawans when they first spotted them cutting the fencing. However, the miscreants refused to relent and attacked the jawans by hurling bombs and with sharp weapons.
“Our jawans had to open fire in self-defence and to protect the fencing since the armed miscreants were quite aggressive being armed with bombs and sharp weapons”, said a senior BSF official of South Bengal Frontier.
“The motive of the miscreants was to make a passage through the fencing so that cattle could be smuggled. But our alert jawans thwarted the attempt”, the BSF official who refused to be identified said. Bodies of the slain miscreants were recovered from near the fencing on Sunday morning and handed over to Krishnaganj police station.
Meanwhile, the killing of the two Bangladeshi caused an embarrassment to the BSF, which made no official statement about the incident. Senior BSF officials of the South Bengal frontier did not respond to calls apparently due to the embarrassment as the alleged killing went against the resolution to which they agreed at the 52nd BGB-BSF DG-level talks held from July 17 to 21 last year with their counterpart BGB to bring down killing to zero by adopting extra precautionary measures.
The two Border guarding forces of the two neighboring countries also issued a joint statement after the meeting at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka. However, senior BSF officials who refused to be identified claimed that the resolution was to avoid killing the “unarmed” persons. Apart from this several measures were announced that include increased coordinated patrols especially during the latter part of the night until morning, enhanced vigilance, and sincere commitments.
A BSF official on anonymity said, “We always uphold the best tradition of human rights. The resolution was to avoid the killing of unarmed Persons. But the persons who were trying to cut the fencing and to sneak into Indian Territory for cattle smuggling last night were armed and had attacked our personnel. So there was no way to avoid firing which was done in self-defence”.