Agartala, June 1 (IANS): A man was killed on Thursday when Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in Tripura opened fire while he was trying to smuggle goods to Bangladesh, police here said.
Swapan Deb's family, however, has accused the BSF men of killing him "without provocation" following a quarrel between them over opening the fencing gates.
"Troopers of BSF while patrolling in the Kalikrishna Nagar village in western Tripura found a person trying to smuggle some items to Bangladesh. BSF personnel challenged him but Swapan Deb, 40, tried to attack the troopers by sharp weapons, leading to the firing that killed him on the spot," Inspector General of Police Nepal Das told IANS.
Sepahijala district police chief Srmiti Ranjan Das and senior BSF officials have rushed to the spot, 70 km west of here. Tensions are running high in the border village, forcing the authorities to deploy additional security forces in the area.
Meantime, the slain man's brother Tapan Deb has lodged a case with the police against the BSF firing. "My elder brother Swapan, like on every other day, went with fish-feed to our pond, but got into a quarrel with the BSF on opening of the fencing gate without taking permission from the BSF deployed there. The troopers suddenly fired without any provocation and that led to his death," Tapan alleged in his complaint.
Recently, Muslim organisations in Tripura have held rallies against "BSF atrocities on the minority people living along the border."
Thursday's incident was the third of civilian killing in border guards' firing along Tripura's 856-km border with Bangladesh.
