India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has suspended four of its personnel for opening fire on a group of alleged cattle smugglers from Bangladesh, two of whom where killed at midnight on Wednesday.
BSF official SP Tiwari told bdnews24.com that the four who were suspended belonged to the 40th Battalion of the BSF deployed at Andrail border outpost opposite Bangladesh’s Putkhali border outpost manned by BGB.
They are Head Constable YN Bhatt, Assistant Sub Inspector Narayan Singha, Constables Prasenjit Das and Mohammed Ayub Ali.
Tiwari said a high-level court of inquiry has been ordered into the shootout in which two Bangladesh nationals were killed at a spot about 800 yards from the Andrail border outpost.
“A senior commandant will conduct the enquiry,” he said.
Tiwari said the BSF headquarters in Delhi has asked the BSF South Bengal area to take “very strict action” if the BSF troops who opened fire were found to have done it without “much provocation”.
“Our Director General has taken a very serious view of the matter,” Tiwari said.
After a preliminary enquiry, Tiwari said the soldiers who were put under suspension had told the senior officials that they had opened fire when they were attacked by a group of 150 smugglers involved in taking away cattle from the Indian side.
“One of our soldier was about to be lynched by them, so we were forced to open fire,” Head Constable Bhatt had told the enquiry.
He said the BSF troops first fired from pump-action guns that had now been issued to them to avoid casualties.
These guns fire pellets and not bullets and they are not designed to shoot to kill.
“But when we fired pellets, the smugglers said these are nakli (fake) guns and they attacked us, so we had to use rifles,” Tiwari quoted Bhatt as saying.
BGB identified those killed in the BSF firing as Habibur Rahman, 30, from Benapole’s Shibnathpur Faruk Hossain, 35, of Basatpur Colony.
Cattle smuggling is believed to be a Tk 10 billion annual contraband trade between India and Bangladesh — so the stakes are high and those involved are often armed and willing to take on border guards.
Source: Bd news24
