B’desh smuggler dies in BSF firing in Malda

Malda: A Bangladeshi member of a gang that smuggles banned cough syrup was killed when BSF personnel opened fire at the India-Bangladesh border in Malda on Tuesday night.
Ibrahim (24) of Shivgunj, which is 6km from the border in Chapai Nawabgunj district of Bangladesh, was declared dead at Malda Medical College. The gang used to smuggle out the cough syrup through the border at Kaliachak.
During patrolling at the Nawada border outpost, a jawan of BSF Battalion 70, noticed suspicious movement of a group of people on either side of the border fencing.Challenged by the jawan, the group turned violent and attacked him with stones and sickles.
“Jawan tried to disperse them and fired stun grenades, but miscreants continued with their aggressive gesture and act. Our jawan fired two rounds in self-defence to save his life,” BSF said in a statement. One of the group was injured in the firing but the others managed to flee.
“One bullet hit one miscreant, who was immediately taken to hospital for treatment where doctor declared him dead,” the BSF statement further said. “The place of occurrence is 200 metres inside Indian territory,” it added.
Before dying, Ibrahim revealed he had come to collect Phensedyl cough syrup on the orders of Bangladeshi smuggler Kalu Sheikh of Shivgunj. The cost of Phensedyl, in high demand as a drug in Bangladesh, has shot up there and smugglers get more than Rs 2,000 per 100 bottles.
A BSF team, including the company commandant, that rushed to the spot found 197 bottles of Phensedyl, a mobile phone and two iron sickles near the border fence.