Acting in self defence following an ambush by smugglers, a BSF jawan on Sunday killed an alleged smuggler in an encounter in West Bengal’s Murshidabad near the frontier on Indo-Bangladesh border
A group of smugglers attacked a jawan while smuggling Phensedyl, following which the forces retaliated and one smuggler was killed in the exchange of fire, officials said.
The incident occurred in the wee hours on Sunday in the area of responsibility of Border Out Post (BOP) Sagarpara, 141 Battalion where a patrol party was on alert for suspicious activity following receipt of reliable inputs from the G Branch of the Border Security Force which gathers intelligence for the paramilitary, they said. At about 3 am, the troops observed the movement of about 10-15 suspected smugglers in the area and informed the patrolling party.
Soon after this, the smugglers attacked the jawans of the patrol party with stones and dah (an edged weapon). This led the jawans to retaliate in self defence.
Initially, the BSF personnel tried to shoo away the smugglers with a non-lethal weapon, but when it had no effect, the jawan was compelled to use his personal service weapon in self-defence, they further said, adding shots were fired and a smuggler was killed.
The other smugglers fled under the cover of darkness, leaving their injured accomplice behind. The injured smuggler subsequently succumbed to the bullet injury.
During the searches after the incident, the paramilitary personnel recovered 532 bottles of Phensedyl (cough syrup) left behind by the fleeing smugglers. The dead smuggler has been identified as Indian national Rohil Mandal, a resident of Murshidabad.