National

Bangladesh police cross border, take away Indian

KOLKATA: Police from Bangladesh allegedly entered the Indian side of the “zero line” separating the two countries in the Dinhata sub-division of West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district and shot an Indian national before dragging him back into that country early on Tuesday.

Border Security Force officials held a meeting with their counterparts in the Bangladesh Rifles and protested against the “illegal” intrusion of the police from that country, BSF’s Deputy Inspector-General, Cooch Behar Sector, V.S. Sikarwar, told The Hindu over telephone from Cooch Behar district.

D.P. Singh, District Superintendent of Police, said that the entry of the police from Bangladesh was an incident of “illegal trespassing.” “There are stretches along the International Border which are yet to be fenced and the Bangladesh police might have entered through one such stretch,” he said.

The police from Bangladesh, some of whom were in uniform, had fired four rounds injuring the man who was taken back by them into Bangladesh, Mr. Sikarwar said. “The incident occurred very close to zero line” and the intrusion was particularly objectionable as “a government agency of that country was responsible,” he added.

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