Top brass of the Border Security Force (BSF) has launched a probe into the shooting incident at a tribal locality on Friday that left three persons, including a woman, dead.
R.P. Singh, Additional Director-General (Headquarters) and Special DG (Eastern Command), accompanied by other senior officials of the force, visited the scene of alleged crime at Habratali in south Tripura on Sunday.
Senior leaders of tribal-based parties Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) also visited the area which is tense after a BSF soldier of the 31 battalion opened indiscriminate fire at a tribal crowd near the international border. Two men and a woman were killed on the spot and two others were injured.
The ruling CPI(M) observed a 12-hour strike in Sabroom subdivision and organised protests across the State to demand exemplary punishment for the erring BSF personnel. The BSF, however, continues to stick to its claim that its soldier resorted to firing in self-defence only after the mob attacked them with sharp weapons.
Taking stock
BSF’s Tripura Frontier IG U.C. Sarangi and his colleagues accompanied Mr. Singh to Habratali. They recorded the statements of the members of the bereaved families, local villagers and the BSF personnel deployed in the area, besides inspecting the scene of firing.
A police official said the victims received bullets in the upper part of their body, causing instant death. Shots were fired from automatic weapons, he told The Hindu .
The IPFT and INPT have demanded a judicial probe into the killings and compensation of ₹25 lakh each to the victims’ families. They also announced an agitation plan against the “atrocious attack on innocent tribal people.”
