Kolkata:

The Border Security Force (BSF) claims to have arrested a civil engineer and seized 50 gold biscuits from his possession in the North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.

“Acting on specific intelligence inputs, troops of 5 Bn BSF, posted at the Tentulberia Border Outpost, carried out a search in the Anchalpara village. The village is located about 2,700 metres behind the BOP. On spotting the BSF troops, a man attempted to flee through the back door of his house. Despite warnings, he attempted to break through the BSF cordon, till a jawan fired a blank round in the air. The man panicked and gave up,” said N K Pandey, DIG and spokesperson, South Bengal Frontier, BSF.

He added that a search of the accused led to the recovery of a black cloth belt wrapped in a synthetic carry bag, adding that the 50 gold biscuits were found inside.

“He, along with the gold, was taken to the Tentulberia BOP for further investigation. During interrogation, the man claimed that he is a civil engineer who had taken to smuggling to earn easy money,” said DIG Pandey.

He said that the engineer confessed that he would receive consignments of gold from across the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB), keep them for a few hours, and then hand them over to an unknown carrier.

“He claimed that he received Rs 500-1,000 per delivery. He apparently received the 50 gold biscuits on Monday morning, but the BSF swooped down before he could pass them on,” the DIG said.

The man, along with the gold, was handed over to officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Kolkata, for further legal proceedings.

DIG Pandey while lauding the effort of the BSF team, urged the border population to share any information related to gold smuggling through the BSF’s Seema Sathi Helpline 14419 or send voice of text messages to the WhatsApp number 9903472227.

He also assured that informants would be rewarded, and their identities kept confidential.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

A Bangladeshi smuggler was killed in retaliatory firing by Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in West Bengal’s Malda district early on Monday.

The BSF personnel were forced to open fire in self-defence after being attacked by two groups of criminals. The smuggler, who was gunned down, was later identified as Abdullah, a resident of Rishipara village in Bangladesh’s Chapainawabganj district.

“In the dark, one of our jawans used his passive night vision binoculars (PNVB) and spotted 5-6 people moving towards Bangladesh from the Indian side with headloads. The jawan immediately rushed forward in an attempt to intercept them. However, before he could do so, 5-6 hiding miscreants attacked him with sharp-edged weapons.

“The jawan was forced to fire a round in self-defence. This did not deter the smugglers though and as they kept moving towards border. Hearing the shot, another jawan rushed forward and came under attack by the group. He too fired a round in self-defence. The smugglers then fled back further inside Indian territory.

“The company commander of the Chandnichawk Border Outpost rushed to the spot with reinforcements and located the injured man inside deep foliage. Sharp weapons were found lying around. He was moved to a hospital in Mahesail, Murshidabad, where he died during treatment,” said A K Arya, DIG and spokesperson, BSF, South Bengal Frontier.

Rishipara is 4.5 km inside Bangladesh from the International Border.

According to the BSF, Abdullah had crossed the security cordon of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to enter India in an attempt to smuggle out bidi leaves. According to Arya, similar attacks on BSF jawans were carried out along the International Border in Murshidabad, Nadia and North 24-Parganas districts.

While praising the alert BSF jawans, Arya said: “Despite frequent flag meetings with the BGB to alert them about the ongoing attacks and infiltration by Bangladeshi criminals, no concrete action has been taken. This inaction has emboldened the smugglers and criminals. Nevertheless, our jawans remain steadfast in protecting our borders and ensuring the security of our nation under all circumstances.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)