On April 26, Trinamool Congress Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a controversial allegation against the Border Security Force (BSF), claiming that BSF personnel have been committing atrocities on villagers in the state.
She alleged, “I have come to know that BSF personnel are going to villages and harassing people in areas that fall under their jurisdiction,” during a press conference at the State Secretariat.
She further said, “Don’t allow BSF to enter 50 km of the area beyond the international border in the state because they are entering the village, killing people, and throwing them on the other side. Ask the BSF to take state police in confidence while working on any operation.”
She said, “Law and order is a State subject. This is not the work of BSF. If cows go missing, then, they file a case against the Trinamool Congress.” She claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is responsible for protecting cows. She further said, “How do cows end up in West Bengal from other places? We don’t want such smuggling in our State.”
Furthermore, she said, “Why would you send cows from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal border and then blame it on TMC for cow smuggling? Is this some kind of a joke? I want to alert everyone about such conspiracies (by the Government of India).”
Earlier, Mamata Banerjee hit out at the Government of India for increasing the BSF’s jurisdiction from 15 kms to 50 kms. She claimed that the Government of India increased the operation limit so that the BSF can harass the voters in panchayat elections. She said, “Why did they do this? Because they know Panchayat elections are coming and that the new operation limit will cover several villages that will cast their vote. In this way, the BSF personnel can harass the voters. They do this anyway,” she said in a press conference.
She also said, “Previously, we used to salute the BSF jawans. But BJP has turned BSF, CRPF ‘political’…The Central government is using them for their political work. They might harass TMC workers so that they cannot go out for election campaigning and do their work.”
Furthermore, she claimed that West Bengal Police will ensure that the BSF cannot operate beyond the old operation limit of 15 kms. She said, “So we will not allow this. We have earlier announced that BSF cannot operate beyond 15 km area from the international border. And West Bengal police will look into it.
