KOLKATA: Hours after a youth was shot dead by the Border Security Force in Cooch Behar on Saturday night, local ruling Trinamool Congress leaders said they planned to highlight incidents of alleged high-handedness of the Central force by reaching out to villagers near the India-Bangladesh border.
The initiative is aimed at causing a dent in the BJP’s north Bengal stronghold in the next year’s panchayat election. In north Bengal, six of eight districts share a border with Bangladesh. TMC leaders say tensions frequently crop up when BSF personnel stop farmers from going to their fields beyond the fences, prevent them from cultivating tall crops of corn and jute citing security reasons, and allegedly assault villagers based on suspicion. “These are the issues that our party would raise in the panchayat polls,” said a local TMC leader.
In north Bengal, the saffron camp bagged seven Lok Sabha seats out of eight in 2019 and 30 Assembly seats out of 54 in the last year’s elections. A team of TMC leaders visited the house of Prem Kumar Barman (24) who was shot dead by the BSF on Saturday suspecting him a smuggler.
The BSF said the deceased, along with some associates, was trying to smuggle cattle to Bangladesh and attacked a constable, who opened fire when he tried to dissuade them. Burman’s family members said he was a migrant worker who returned from Bangalore.
“Those who have faced BSF’s high-handedness can only feel the plight of thousands of people living near the borders. We will raise our voice against the humiliations, restrictions on movement and assault for no reason during our visit to the areas in six districts,’’ said Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister who was elected from Dinhata, Cooch Behar, that shares border with Bangladesh.
The BSF recently faced protests from villagers in North Dinajpur district for not allowing them to walk up to the fences to meet friends and relatives at an annual event.