Cattle Smugglers attack BSF Jawan with bombs at Bangladesh border; Seriously injured Jawan loses his hand

Indo-Bangladesh border of West Bengal is known to be intimately & viciously associated with illegal trafficking of human beings, cattles, narcotics, fake currency, gold & last but not the least, infiltration of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. West Bengal-Bangladesh border is the usual route of Cattle smuggling from India. Each cattle is reported to be sold at Rs. 55,000.00 in India as against Rs. 1,00,000.00 in Bangladesh amounting to a gain of approximately a double if sold on Bangladesh. However, as NDA Government tried to impose stricter supervision upon cattle smuggling since after 2014, cattle smugglers took to other routes such as through Brahmaputra river from Dhubri in Assam & also via Tripura. The illegal business volume had reduced as cattle-smuggling through Bengal-border had been curbed to a significant extent in NDA regime.

However, as a result of Governmental pro-activity under NDA to curb cattle-smuggling through Indo-Bangladesh border, Bangladeshi smugglers and BSF Jawans are often losing lives in mutual armed confrontations during such cross-border criminal transactions.

Two years back, cattle smugglers’ aggression claimed life of BSF commanding officer Deepak Kumar Mandal who was attacked by cattle smugglers in Tripura’s Sipahijala district & succumbed to his injuries in Kolkata in October, 2017.

Similarly, another BSF Jawan, Anisur Rehman, met irreparable injuries as cattle smugglers at Angrail border under Gaighata PS near Bangaon attacked him with bombs on July 11 in the very early morning. He lost his hand as a group of 25 Bangladeshi cattle smugglers equipped with country made bombs, sharp edged weapons, sticks, high beam torches attacked him. As reported by BSF, some members of the group were Indians.

Smugglers torched blinding light into his eyes when the Jawan, Anisur Rehman first fired from his non-lethal Pump Action Gun in the direction of the smugglers. They dropped two bombs towards him during which he suffered impact pellet injuries to his lungs, liver and stomach. BSF issued an alert to their Bangladesh counterparts, the Border Guards Bangaldesh (BGB) to intercept the criminals on their side.

As reported by BSF, the group of Bangaldeshi smugglers entered 200 metres into the Indian territory in order to smuggle cattle into their country with the assistance of locals here. They got around the Jawan and hurled two bombs upon him. The Jawan was severely injured but yet fired a round from his PAG before he fell unconscious. Reinforcement troops arrived to take control of the situation & the Jawan was shifted to Bangaon Government Hospital where his right hand had to be amputated. BSF reported that the smugglers managed to flee away to Bangladesh as it was pitch dark at that time and the area was densely covered by long grass & other vegetation. BSF reported a smuggler too had been injured being fired by the Jawan but managed to escape.

After this attack BSF directed all its operational units in South Bengal frontier area to take an aggressive pose & thwart the sinister plans of the cross-border criminals. BSF is aggrieved that they’re meeting such attacks quite frequently. Unless this incident is taken seriously & justice is done providing the force with better security arrangements, they might move ahead for an agitation, reported BSF.

Apart from Bangaon, Basirhat in South Bengal is the other infamous frontier for cattle smuggling & other cross-border crimes including infiltration. In the past few years, during NDA regime, cross-border cattle smuggling had drastically reduced resulting in sharp rise in beef price in Bangladesh. As reported by Economic Times, nearly 17 lakhs cows were transported across Bangladesh border in 2014 which came down to less than a lakh till last year. This statistics is in congruence with the fact that Basirhat saw grave communal tension in 2017 based apparently on a mere Facebook post of a teenager boy. However, the real reason thereof could likely be the downfall in cattle smuggling business under NDA as the criminal trafficking economy was reported to feed around 30,000 people of the area choking of which put the whole area ablaze in the fire of violence in which the Facebook post of the teenage boy appeared to add but a spark.

Apart from cross-border trafficking of several items, West Bengal-Bangladesh border is also infamous for continuous infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into the Indian territory. Sandeshkhali, a riverside bordering Assembly Constituency under Basirhat, came into prominence in the recent past when after the latest LS Election result, in which Trinamool Congress won Basirhat, a number of BJP men of Sandeshkhali belonging to Hindu community was brutally murdered allegedly by the men of Sheikh Shahjahan. Sheikh Shahjahan of Trinamool Congress is known to be the political muscleman & the de-facto ruler of Sandeshkhali. It was alleged that Sheikh Shahjahan’s fleet of people consisted of Rohingyas who were armed with AK 47 & attacked BJP men named Pradip Mondal, Sukanta Mondal & few others. West Bengal State Police under Mamata Banerjee allegedly remained mere spectator of the brutal massacre. Members of Mondal family pathetically lamented that Sheikh Shahjahan’s men came along with the State Police to threat them. The brutal massacre & grave post-poll violence of Sandeshkhali was reported to have resulted in exodus of Hindu families from there. This was also reported to facilitate land-capturing at Sandeshkhali by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh as the neighbouring country is just a little distance away across the river from there. The riverine border between West Bengal and Bangladesh at Sandeshkhali is highly porous & Rohingyas too are known to have entered South Bengal through this route itself. Sheikh Shahjahan was also reported to be the key person to facilitate entry of Rohingyas into South Bengal. BJP demanded NIA probe into the grave incident of Sandeshkhali. Locals thereof demanded immediate arrest of Sheikh Shahjahan & lodged an FIR against him in Nazat Police Station. However, Shahjahan, reportedly being a cross-border criminal, is known to have moved away to Bangladesh crossing the international border & thereby disabling the Indian force to catch hold of him. Sandeshkhali incident is grave enough to drag attention of both GOI & the Government of Bangladesh & the issue may require bi-lateral intervention to be solved.

Sandeshkhali incident as well as the attacks on BSF Jawans at the Indo-Bangladesh border expose the security lapses at our Eastern border. In spite of Indo-Bangladesh international border being as long as 4096.7 Km out of which WB-Bangladesh international border being as much as 2216.7 km, there are serious security-lacunae along this huge international border. As a result, continuous infiltration & cross-border crime through this porous border are posing serious threats to the National security of India. Newly elected MP from Bengaluru, Tejaswi Surya of BJP, mentioned presence of huge number of Bangladeshi immigrants in his State & hence, has demanded NRC of Karnataka. It is not illogical to plot that the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh enter India through the Eastern border as the Eastern border lacks necessary security arrangements. Efforts of securing the Western border of India may be futile by keeping the Eastern border such porous, vulnerable & insufficiently protected.