In an operation against illegal cattle smugglers, the Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday killed a suspected Bangladeshi cattle smuggler in an encounter along the India-Bangladesh border in southern Assam’s Karimganj district.
According to the reports, the incident took place when more than 30 Bangladeshis tried to enter India by cutting the fences along the border, said Mahendra Deb Ray, Superintendent of Police (SP) Karimganj.
“As per the version of the BSF, 30-40 Bangladeshis suspected to be cattle smugglers tried to enter. There was a confrontation and one person died on the spot after being hit with pellets from a pump-action gun,” Ray was quoted in the report.
The police said that the identity of the killed person has not been confirmed. However, the police stated they have information that the person killed was Abdul Rouf from Moulvibazar in Sylhet.
“Border Guards Bangladesh have informally conveyed about a missing person. No official communication has been received yet,” said Debojit Nath, the Additional Superintendent of Police, Karimganj.
According to the report, a senior BSF official said that there was an intelligence input that cattle smugglers may try to infiltrate.
“A team was positioned on the other side of the border fence (there is a distance of 150 metres between the border fence and international border). At around 1 AM, a group of more than 30 cattle smugglers approached and when they noticed BSF one of them threw a dao (machete). In return, our men fired one round from pump action gun,” the BSF official said.
The group fled after the encounter, said the official while adding that when BSF team went to search the area, a dead body was found. Three daggers, one fence cutter and one mobile phone was found frok his possession. The BSF also seized a cow during the encounter.
In July, around 25 Bangladeshi cattle smugglers along the India-Bangladesh border had attacked a BSF jawan with bombs and injured the jawan on border duty.
Just a few days back, in an incident along the Assam-Bangladesh border, a BSF jawan had lost his life when Inspector Sanjay Kumar Sadhu fell into the Brahmaputra river in Dhubri while chasing cattle smugglers. In another incident, a jawan was critically injured after he was attacked by cattle smugglers near Gobardah border post in the southern region of West Bengal.
The porous border along Bangladesh is often used by cattle smugglers to illegally transport cattle from India to Bangladesh. Recently, the BSF discovered a new method adopted by smugglers to smuggle cattle across the border. Smugglers are using flooded rivers to send cattle to the other side. It is estimated that thousands of cattle are smuggled every year to Bangladesh through the 2216 KM long porous border.
