A Bangladeshi man was killed in retaliatory firing by India`s Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in West Bengal`s Malda district early on Monday, reports NDTV.
The BSF personnel opened fire in self-defence after being allegedly attacked. The victim, who was gunned down, was later identified as Abdullah, a resident of Rishipara village in Chapainawabgan, some 4.5 km inside the border with India.
According to the BSF, Abdullah and others had crossed the security cordon of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to enter India in an attempt to smuggle out bidi leaves.
"In the dark, one of our jawans used his passive night vision binoculars (PNVB) and spotted 5-6 people moving towards Bangladesh from the Indian side with headloads. The jawan immediately rushed forward in an attempt to intercept them. However, before he could do so, 5-6 hiding miscreants attacked him with sharp-edged weapons.
"The jawan was forced to fire a round in self-defence. This did not deter the smugglers though and as they kept moving towards border. Hearing the shot, another jawan rushed forward and came under attack by the group. He too fired a round in self-defence. The smugglers then fled back further inside Indian territory.
"The company commander of the Chandnichawk Border Outpost rushed to the spot with reinforcements and located the injured man inside deep foliage. Sharp weapons were found lying around. He was moved to a hospital in Mahesail, Murshidabad, where he died during treatment," said A K Arya, DIG and spokesperson, BSF, South Bengal Frontier.
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