Three customs employees hurt in brawl with BGB men

Three customs employees were injured in a brawl with members of BGB in Tamabil Land Port area on Thursday.

The injured are Assistant Customs Officers Mostafizur Rahman and Tuhin Chowdhury, and driver Rafique Khan.

The BGB officials claimed they acted in self-defence after being attacked by the customs officials.

On Thursday, three Indian students, studying in a Sylhet medical college, arrived from Meghalaya at Tamabil Land Port.

BGB men intercepted, claiming they were carrying Indian liquor. When the checking began, the students rushed to the customs officials and reported the incident. 

The customs officials rushed to the spot and got locked into a brawl with BGB men, said Shipon Kumar Das, assistant revenue officer of the port.

Shipon claimed that it's the duty of customs officials to check luggage, but BGB men often do it with an intention to get some bribe. “When the customs officials went to the port area in the evening to settle the issue, BGB men beat them up,” he claimed.

Lt Col Shah Alam Chowdhury, director of 48 Border Guard Battalion in Sylhet, said the claim is baseless.

He said BGB has authority to check suspicious baggages while passengers enter the country. “On Thursday, soldiers had an intelligence report that the passengers are carrying illegal liquor."

When the soldiers found the liquor, customs officials snatched the bags and also assaulted a female soldier, Lt Col Shah Alam claimed.

Then, on the instruction of the top officials, they came to apologise in the evening, but locked into an altercation with the soldiers, he also said, adding, “BGB men acted in self-defence, which may have caused minor injuries to one or two of them.”