Meghalaya: Villager stabbed by armed gang from across Bangladesh border

Shillong, Aug 9 (IANS) In a midnight daring attempt, some Bangladeshi armed men reportedly attacked villagers after illegally entering Indian territory in Meghalaya’s South West Khasi Hills district, officials said on Saturday.

A senior official of Meghalaya police said that during the intervening night of Friday, eight to nine armed Bangladesh nationals entered Rongdongai village and fired at the villagers and assaulted an Indian villager.

The Indian villager was stabbed after he detained a Bangladeshi national. All the Bangladeshi attackers were forced to flee the area after other villagers chased them.

However, before leaving the Indian territory, the Bangladeshi attackers left behind several items in haste, the official said, adding that Bangladesh police were suspected to be accompanying along with the attackers.

Police later recovered an ID of a Bangladesh police constable at the site of the incident along with several other items. The other items recovered from the bordering areas include handcuffs, magazine covers of arms, a pistol holster, radio sets, mobile phones, face masks, an axe, a wire cutter, some Bangladeshi currencies, and other objects. Rongdongai is a remote village located around 10 km from the Bangladesh border.

Meghalaya Police, along with the Border Security Force (BSF) troops, have been conducting a massive search along the India-Bangladesh frontiers. A BSF official said that four “miscreants” were arrested and their identities are being verified.

Large stretches of the 443 km India-Bangladesh border with Meghalaya remained unfenced due to various reasons, including difficult terrain, water bodies, forests, and mountains.

Police suspect that the Bangladesh intruders might have crossed through these porous areas by swimming water bodies or using underground culverts.

Meanwhile, on August 7, early morning, eight suspected Bangladeshi nationals entered a stone quarry at Bagli, also in the same South West Khasi Hills district.

Police immediately launched a search operation after receiving information, but the intruder managed to escape.

--IANS

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