A Bangladeshi smuggler was killed and another injured in BSF firing along the India-Bangladesh border with Tripura’s Unakoti district on Sunday.

The Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of BSF also apprehended three Myanmar nationals (Rohingyas) from Agartala railway station on Sunday in a joint operation with GRP and RPF after the foreign citizens came to Tripura from Hyderabad to go to Bangladesh in a clandestine route.

BSF sources said that when the border guarding troopers were performing duty ahead of the barbed wire fence near the Magroli Border Out Post (BOP) Unakoti district observed 15 - 20 miscreants approaching IBBF (Indo-Bangla Border Fencing)  from Indian side with head load and 25 -30 miscreants from BD side with bamboo ladder.

BSF troops challenged them to stop but they didn’t pay heed and became aggressive and encircled the border guarding jawans, assaulted a BSF personnel, tried to snatch the weapon and attempted to take him to Bangladesh territory.

Sensing imminent danger to life and govt property, BSF jawans fired from Pump Action Gun (PAG), a non-lethal weapon, killing one of the Bangladeshi smugglers Saddam Hussein (23), a resident of Moulovibazar district, and another smuggler was injured and he was taken to Bangladesh territory by the smugglers.

In this incident, a BSF Jawan got grievous injury on his forehead, who was further evacuated to nearby district hospital where he got preliminary medical treatment. Now the condition of the jawan is stable.

A Border Security Force spokesman said that the Anti Human Trafficking Unit of BSF in a joint operation with the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) apprehended three Rohingyas from Agartala railway station.

Acting on specific information joint ops party apprehended Hamid hussain (23), Abdur Rasik (24) and Mohammed Yusuf. All are residents of Myanmar. Further legal actions are being initiated.

GRP officer in-charge in the Agartala railway station, Tapas Das said that the detainees said that they had entered into India through West Bengal’s Bangladesh border eight years back and had gone to Hyderabad.

The Myanmarese confessed that they had come to Tripura to go to Bangladesh but failed to do so due to security alertness and the heightened security in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

According to the BSF, they arrested 744 persons including 112 Rohingyas, 337 Bangladeshi nationals and 295 Indians in 2023 for illegally crossing the international border with Tripura.

In 2022, the BSF had detained 369 persons including 59 Rohingya, 160 Indians and 150 Bangladeshi nationals along the state’s 856 km-long international border with Bangladesh.

In a separate operation on Sunday, BSF troops along with RPF personnel in a joint operation seized 290.50 grams of suspected brown sugar worth Rs 1.45 crore from a general coach at Kumarghat railway station in northern Tripura.

The drugs were packed in six soap cases which were wrapped as a gift packet to avoid suspicion or detection by security personnel. None was arrested in connection with the seizure as the drugs were seized in abandoned condition.