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BSF guns down suspected smuggler in Bengal’s Murshidabad
The officers said 532 bottles of Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup that fetches a high price in the narcotics market of Bangladesh, were seized. The deceased was identified as Ruhul Mondal (35), a local villager.
Berhampore: Border Security Force personnel gunned down a suspected smuggler in Bengal’s Murshidabad district early on Sunday morning when he and his associates were allegedly trying to take a consignment of cough syrup to Bangladesh, officers of the BSF’s 141 Battalion posted in the region said.
The officers said 532 bottles of Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup that fetches a high price in the narcotics market of Bangladesh, were seized. The deceased was identified as Ruhul Mondal (35), a local villager.
The incident took place near the Sagarpara border outpost. Mondal had around 15 associates who managed to escape, BSF officers said.
“We had intelligence inputs that some people might attempt to smuggle Phensedyl bottles through the Sagarpara border. We intensified patrolling in the area,” an officer said on condition of anonymity.
“When we spotted the smugglers and asked them to stop, they started pelting stones and ran towards us with sharp weapons. Non-lethal weapons were used to disperse the smugglers but they had no effect. A BSF jawan fired a couple of rounds from his INSAS rifle and Mondal died on the spot,” the officer added.
Mondal’s family however claimed that he was not involved in smuggling.
Osila Bibi, his sister-in-law, said: “We have around 10 bighas of agricultural land near the border outpost. Ruhul used to go there every day. He was hit by a bullet that the BSF jawans fired at the smugglers. We want the guilty to be punished. Ruhul was working in the field when the smugglers were trying to cross the border.”
An officer from the Sagarpara police station said Mondal’s family did not lodge any official complaint till Sunday afternoon. The body has been sent for post mortem.
BSF officers said although cattle smuggling through the India-Bangladesh border has been controlled to a large extent, smuggling of cough syrup remains a problem.
In 2021, BSF personnel deployed at the South Bengal Frontier seized around 0.164 million bottles of the cough syrup. The seizure in 2020 was 0.299 million bottles while in 2019 the figure stood at 0.198 million.
