TURA: A suspected cattle smuggler was killed recently when a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan fired “to protect himself” from a group of men trying to attack him in South West Garo Hills.
According to police and the Border Security Force, the border sentry spotted a group of around 12 men entering Kalaichar from the neighbouring country through an open culvert on the night of July 2.
The men were trying to lead the cattle out through the river bank when the BSF jawan spotted them from a tower.
When challenged, the men rushed towards his position and started throwing sticks, bamboos, dao and other lethal weapons, said BSF. The jawan then opened fire from his service rifle in self-defence. One of the attackers was killed in the firing while the others abandoned the stolen cows, which were later seized, and fled into Bangladesh territory through the open culvert.
The nokma of Kalaichar was called in to identify the body found lying near a pond. But he could not be identified as someone from the area.
Police later took custody of the body and a postmortem was conducted. BSF officials are expected to hand over the corpse to the Bangladesh Border guards (BBG) on Thursday.
There have been several instances in the recent past where cattle have been smuggled from Garo Hills into the neighbouring country. The BSF force manning the border have also seized large number of cattle during border operations.
According to BSF officials, there have been several successful operations at plugging the gaps along the border with Bangladesh. However, smugglers are taking advantage of the presence of river routes and open culverts to continue with their operations.
