BSF's women troopers foil smuggling bid along India-B'desh border

Agartala, Jan 12 The women troopers of the Border Security Force (BSF) on Sunday opened fire and successfully foiled a major attempt of smuggling of contrabands along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura, officials said.

A BSF spokesperson said that the Mahila Praharis of BSF fired two rounds from their lethal weapons in compelling circumstances when a large group of smugglers armed with sharp-edged weapons forcibly attempted to carry out smuggling of contrabands along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura's Sepahijala district.

"The alert Mahila Praharis effectively foiled the major attempt of smuggling in the BOP Ashabari area and a huge quantity of sugar and other contrabands were recovered,” the spokesman said.

He said that as part of the familiarisation effort, Inspector General (IG) of BSF's Tripura frontier Ashwani Kumar Sharma visited Integrated Check Post in Manughat and presented a fruit basket to the troops of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

The BSF IG as part of his three-day border visit in Unakoti and Dhalai districts in northern Tripura reviewed operational preparedness of the border guarding forces.

The spokesman said that Sharma, who recently took over the charge of Tripura frontier of BSF, was briefed by the battalion commanders on the current scenario of the border.

Addressing the BSF troopers during Sainik Sammelan at BOP Morachera, the IG lauded their relentless efforts while emphasising the need to be alert in view of the prevailing situation along the India-Bangladesh border.

In another operation on Saturday, BSF troops of BOP Gaurnagar Khowai district apprehended three Bangladeshi nationals while they were trying to illegally cross over to Bangladesh from India.

Apprehended Bangladeshi nationals are residents of Brahmanbaria district of the neighbouring country.

During questioning by BSF, the intruders revealed the identity of Indian tout and Bangladeshi tout involved in facilitating crossing of border.

In addition adopting non-lethal strategy, BSF troops successfully foiled several attempts of infiltration and smuggling, rescued 10 cattle, seized 1,000 kg of sugar, 16 kg ganja, huge quantity of clothing items, medicines and other contraband worth more than Rs 50 lakh.

The spokesperson said that BSF is maintaining a high level of alertness on the international border to prevent infiltration and trans border crimes.

He said that after the Bangladesh unrest began in June-July, the BSF has intensified its domination and operations along the 856-km India-Bangladesh border in Tripura to prevent infiltration, exfiltration, and trans-border crimes including smuggling of contraband.

Tripura, which is surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides, parts of which are still unfenced in patches due to local disputes on land and demarcation-related issues.

The BSF alone last year arrested 55 Rohingya migrants, 620 Bangladeshi nationals and 260 Indian nationals including human traffickers in various operations.

Source: IANS