The Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead an alleged smuggler in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district during an encounter on the Indo-Bangladesh border, officials said on Thursday. The encounter took place along the international border in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur’s Raiganj, Murshidabad district. A senior BSF officer informed me that on Wednesday at 9.05 pm, the BSF team was performing night domination duties along the international boundary of border outpost Hariharpur in Sector Raiganj in West Bengal.
While performing their duties, they observed around 10 Bangladeshi smugglers armed with sharp-edged weapons approaching the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB) fence from either side (India and Bangladesh) with the criminal intention of smuggling activity by violating the sanctity of the international boundary as well as in contravention of prohibitory orders of movement along the designated areas.
Upon being challenged, the armed smugglers began moving aggressively and encircled the BSF team. BSF personnel first lobbed a stun grenade to disperse the BD smugglers and then fired two rounds of Pump Action Gun.But it did not have any effect on the Bangladeshi smugglers, and one of them attempted to snatch the INSAS rifle of one of the BSF personnel, while the rest of the miscreants tried to attack BSF personnel with sharp-edged weapons (Dahs).
Sensing imminent danger to their own lives, the BSF personnel fired in self-defence from their personal weapons, resulting in the death of one of the Bangladeshi miscreants.