Questions raised over BSF’s border vigil
TURA: A well known pharmacist from Mahendraganj town, who was abducted on his way home recently has been released after suffering several days of ordeal inside neighbouring Bangladesh.
40-year-old Shankar Barman reached his home at Kumarkatti locality of Mahendraganj town at 10 am on Sunday.
A gang of Bangladeshi criminals had reportedly kidnapped him while he was returning home after closing shop at around 10 PM over 10 days ago.
The kidnappers are said to have kept him at a border village inside Bangladesh for several days as they waited for the victim’s family to pay up. The gang even assaulted him as they sought ransom from his family.
They had reportedly demanded between Rs 10-12 lakhs from the family but later scaled it down after Barman’s family expressed their inability to pay such a huge amount. Although the kidnappers crossed the border at Mahendraganj to commit their crime, yet they pushed him back from another distant location to avoid detection. Barman was released in the Purakhasia border region during the early part of Sunday morning. He managed to hitch a ride in a three wheeler tempo vehicle that brought him to his home in Mahendraganj.
The daring kidnap by criminals operating from Bangladesh who frequented the international border to commit crime with such ease has put a serious question mark on the vigil by the BSF.
The sentinels of the border were totally in the dark when the gang crossed over to abduct an Indian citizen and take him across after committing the crime.
The gang was even able to push back their victim through the international border after receiving ransom despite ‘vigil’ by the BSF.
Cross border gangs have been creating havoc all along the border belt in Garo Hills starting from Mahendraganj all the way to extreme southern tip of Rongara. From smuggling, cattle lifting and motorcycle theft, cross border criminal gangs have become emboldened and are now resorting to abductions. There have been several kidnapping cases in the Baghmara region in which state police have been unsuccessful in rescuing the victims since the gangs remain holed up inside Bangladesh territory with their abducted victims knowing well that Indian forces cannot cross over.
The only possible check against such criminal activities is vigil along the border belt but that has been proven to be flawed once again.