Agartala: At least four people, including a BSF jawan were injured in a clash between Border Security Force (BSF) jawans and a group of Indian villagers along Tripura Bangladesh Border on Friday.
At least four people were injured during scuffle at Rahimpur village of Boxanagar in Sonamura of West Tripura when a group of villagers, including women tried to smuggle out a large consignment of spices to Bangladesh through an entry gate.
“We attempted to prevent them at the entry point but they challenged BSF and pelted stones,” the jawans said. In a bid to quell the rioters, BSF personnel opened fire in the air to disperse the mob.
To escape from BSF action, the crowd stated moving indiscriminately from the spot that caused injuries to three villagers including women – Rahima Khatun (32) and Harija Khatun (30), residents of Rahimpur.
A BSF jawan also received injuries in villagers attack and all injured were shifted to hospital.
Allegedly, the villagers, led by women, tried to snatch away the service rifles from the jawans but they failed when BSF resorted to charge baton on the villagers, BSF officials said here today.
Both police and BSF made extra deployment in entire stretches but tension prevailed in the villages of Boxanagar area, said Superintendent of Police of Sepahijala district S R Das, adding that situation was under control.
Top officials of BSF, police and civil administration rushed to the spot immediately after the incident and held meeting with the village elders and Panchayat representatives.
Later, BSF seized about 200 kg cannabis worth Rs 10 lakh from a house of the village, which was suspected to be smuggled out to Bangladesh by the villagers.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Sonamura sub-division administration and BSF led by SDM (Sonamura) Subhashis Das raided the house and seized the spices.
According to report, ahead of Id-ul-fitr cannabis has huge demand in Bangladesh. Rahimpur is traditional a cannabis cultivating village and most of the produces have been smuggled out into Bangladesh.
In a separate raid, BSF seized a huge consignment of phensedyl worth of Rs 1.53 lakh from Sonamura Market on Friday evening. The consignment included 750 bottles of phensedyl and 66 liters of Kerosene of Rs 1.53 lakh. (UNI)
