Tension continues to grip South Ramnagar (Joypur) locality on edge of border with Bangladesh in Agartala after violent clashes on Friday night that left a BSF jawan and a local resident killed. Tripura government has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident in which eleven persons including a women sustained bullet injuries.
Meanwhile Muslim groups led by Jamiat Ulma e Hind staged noisy protests outside police headquarters in Agartala on Saturday. They demanded arrest of the BSF jawans who ‘resorted to unprovoked firing on innocent residents’ and an apology from the BSF authority with an assurance to stop such ‘attacks’.
There are conflicting reports over exact circumstance which led to most ugly incident on a border locality in recent times. BSF, state police and state government officials – all failed to dispel confusion even on Saturday.
Most heard version is that two BSF jawans landed in verbal altercation with Kanu Mia, 44 and a few youths who were sitting near a pond to cool-off from scorching heat. This led to physical scuffle and a jawan opened fire injuring Kanu.
Scores of residents including Ismail Mia, 70, rushed out from their home after hearing the firing sound. Upon seeing the irate mob, BSF jawans opened indiscriminate fire leading to several casualties.
During the confrontation, one of BSF jawans, Sandip Kumar, 34, received a shot and he was declared brought dead when taken to government G.B. Hospital. Eleven people including a woman were admitted at the same hospital and condition of Kanu Mia remains critical.
Around midnight, bullet riddled body of Ismail Mia was recovered from a graveyard in the area. He received shots at stomach, hand and neck.
Autopsy of Ismail Mia and Sandip Kumar completed in the morning and doctors confirmed injuries inflicted by bullets caused their death. Sandip hailed from Amritsar in Punjab and his body will be flown to his family.
Tension at South Ramnagar again ran high in the morning after body of Ismail Mia was being taken to home. Hundreds of residents joined protests with the corpse outside police headquarters and senior police officials had a tough time to pacify them.
The state government has directed the West Tripura district magistrate Avishek Singh to conduct enquiry into whole gamut of the incident. BSF is carrying out own probe and the police also probing the violent incident under provisions of the Cr. PC.
Paramilitary Tripura State Rifles (TSR) soldiers have been heavily deployed in South Ramnagar amid tension. Senior police and civil officials are frequently visiting the locality to monitor situation.
