Villagers fear fresh attack

People of bordering Tetra village in Bochaganj upazila fear that there may be a fresh attack on them by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) after they protested the Indian troops' illegal intrusion into Bangladesh territory and beating a famer on Friday.

Meanwhile, nearly 24 hours of the incident, a flag meeting between the high officials of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and BSF was held at the village around 11:00am and continued till 12:30pm yesterday.

But surprisingly, the BGB high officials left the village without giving any directives to the villagers, villagers alleged.

Villagers said a BSF member entered the village, around 100 metres near the border on Friday morning and suddenly attacked one Hamed Ali, 30, son of late Akbar Ali of Dakkhin Tetra village, while he was spreading fertilizer on his paddy field.

When local people protested the incident, a group of 20 to 25 BSF men, equipped with arms, entered the village again and charged batons on the innocent villagers.

Later, several chase and counter chase incidents took place between the villagers and BSF troops for nearly half an hour, one of the villagers Ashraful Islam said.

The BSF troops went back to their territory after a team of BGB arrived there.

Saiful Islam of the village alleged that BSF men beat up his family members in the same fashion about three months ago.