- Border bosses mum on firing From The Telegraph | ||
| OUR CORRESPONDENT | ||
Raiganj, Dec. 2: A BSF jawan allegedly under the influence of alcohol fired 20 rounds from his assault rifle at a shop in Kusmandi last night, killing a local and injuring a colleague who had tried to restrain him. The CPM today enforced a 12-hour bandh in South Dinajpur’s Kusmandi, 40km from here, to protest the unprovoked firing by Vijay Prakash. The deputy inspector-general of the BSF’s Raiganj range, Jaswant Singh, said Vijay’s battalion was not under his jurisdiction but under that of DIG Malda. U.K. Nehal, the BSF’s DIG in Malda, was not in town but the staff at his office said the Santhimari camp where Vijay is posted is under the Raiganj range. A BSF officer, who refused to be named, said Vijay was in BSF custody and senior officers were coming to interrogate him. “We are yet to find out what made him open fire,” he said. Both Gopal Tudu, the Kusmandi resident who was hit by a bullet in the stomach, and the injured BSF jawan, Tarsimlal, were brought to the Raiganj district hospital in North Dinajpur here late last night. The doctors referred Gopal, 24, to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital but he died on the way. Bishnu Tudu, Gopal’s uncle who witnessed the incident and had accompanied him to the district hospital here, said Vijay and four other jawans had come to the grocery store of Jagai Sarkar after 6.30pm yesterday. “My nephew had also come to the shop to buy some items. The five BSF jawans were from the Santhimari camp. They stopped at the shop and enquired about one of their colleagues, who was missing. When we told them that we had not seen anyone, two of them drove off towards the Bangladesh border,” Bishnu said. About 20 minutes later, the vehicle returned with a third BSF jawan, Vijay. “He was clearly intoxicated and reeking of liquor. He asked for a cigarette. He could hardly stand on his feet in the shop. When his colleagues tried to take him back inside the vehicle, the jawan started firing indiscriminately. Gopal was hit first and he slumped to the ground. We ran helter skelter for cover in the bazaar area,” Bishnu recounted. When the firing stopped, Bishnu realised that the other jawans had overpowered Vijay. His rifle had been taken away from him and he had been bundled off into the vehicle that drove off towards Santhimari, less than 2km away. “When we returned to the shop we found that my nephew was bleeding profusely. We first took him to the Kusmandi primary health centre and then to Raiganj district hospital,” said Bishnu. Gopal was declared brought dead at the NBMCH early this morning. Tarsimlal, the jawan whose right arm was grazed by a bullet, said Vijay was missing when they came to collect the grocery items. “Last evening when we came to the shop we found that Vijay Prakash was not with us. He was found some distance away. Our colleagues returned with him to the shop. When we tried to persuade him back into the car, he started firing. We ran for cover and took shelter behind our vehicle. He fired all 20 rounds from his Insas assault rifle and when he tried to reload, we overpowered him,” Tarsimlal said. The zonal committee secretary of the CPM in Kusmandi, Shyamal Ghosh, said the incident was not an isolated one. “Every day the BSF commits some atrocity or the other. They take things from shops without paying money. They snatch vegetables and other crops from farmers walking along the border roads. The people are so scared of them that seldom do they protest,” he said. The CPM led a demonstration at the Santhimari BSF camp this morning, demanding that it be shifted. “We have observed a 12-hour bandh in the area demanding punishment for the guilty jawan,” he said. The subdivisional police officer of Kusmandi, Kazi Samsuddin Ahmed, said a murder case had been started against the BSF jawan. “There was tension in the area and we have sent additional forces,” the SDPO said. | ||
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tipsy jawan runs amok, shoots one
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