300 sued for attacking BGB men, looting smuggled goods

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) yesterday sued 300 people in two separate cases on charges of attacking a BGB patrol team and looting seized smuggled goods in Birampur upazila of the district on Tuesday.

Havilder Abul Bashar, camp commander of BGB 29 Battalion, filed a case with Birampur Police Station accusing 300 people on charge of preventing the border guards from performing their duties.

Of the accused, 89 were named while the rest unnamed.

Sadeq Ahmed, another Havilder of the battalion, filed another case with the police station, accusing 50 to 60 unidentified people for looting the seized smuggled goods from an intercity train at Birampur Railway Station on Tuesday afternoon, said Md Amiruzzaman, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Earlier, on Tuesday, two people were killed and three others sustained bullet injuries as a BGB team opened fire on smugglers while they were raiding Birampur Railway Station.

Locals claimed that the deceased Mohammad Shahin, 28, and Mohammad Sultan, 24, of Colonypara in the upazila, were innocent and used to run a tea stall in the station area.

Quoting witnesses, police said a team of the border guards raided Saidpur-bound "Rupsha Express" around 5:00pm and found illegally imported saris inside the train.

Later, a scuffle occurred between the smugglers and the BGB men when the later tried to seize the saris and detain the criminals.

At one point, the smugglers attacked the BGB team and looted the seized goods, prompting the paramilitary to open fire, said Korban Ali, commanding officer of the BGB 29 Battalion.