Two Bangladeshis were shot dead and another was injured when Indian Khasia tribesmen from the other side of the border fired into a group of Bangladeshi labours lifting stones from the River Bagaiya at Gowainghat about 4:30am on Friday, the police and local people said.
The deceased were Kamal Uddin alias Zahur, 32, of Bisnakandi, and Kamal Miah, 30, of Natun Bhanga Badnartuk in the upazila in Sylhet.
Fellow labourers using boats recovered the body of Zahur immediately while Kamal’s body sank into the river near pillar 1263, the police said quoting the people present there.
The Border Guard Bangladesh later recovered the body of Kamal Miah from the river about 9:00am.
The injured Imam Uddin was given treatment in a local clinic, sources said.
BGB 5 Battalion commander lieutenant colonel Shafiul Azam told New Age in the afternoon that India’s Border Security Force was immediately contacted over telephone and a protest was lodged regarding the killing of the two Bangladeshis.
He said that a meeting between the local camp officials of the Border Guard Bangladesh and India’s Border Security Force was held in the afternoon.
‘BSF officials at the meeting said that they would warn their citizens against firing into Bangladeshis in the future,’ Azam said adding that the BSF had little control over their civilians.
The Gowainghat police officer-in-charge, Younus Miah, said that relatives of Zahur and Kamal Miah in the afternoon were trying to seek local administration’s permission to bury the bodies without post-mortem examinations.
-With New Age input
