Author: Syed Zarir Hussain in Guwahati
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: October 29, 2001
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/oct/29bang.htm
Heavily armed intruders, allegedly
from Bangladesh, hacked to death an Indian tribal villager after ransacking
a border hamlet in Meghalaya, community leaders said on Monday.
The Federation of Ri-War Mihngi
Local Dorbars, an influential tribal council, alleged that more than 100
Bangladeshi civilians attacked Pakhria village, 100 km east of Meghalaya's
capital Shillong, during the weekend, "ransacking and looting" properties
and agricultural produce.
"Armed with long knives and other
crude implements, hordes of Bangladeshi nationals attacked the village
with the locals totally caught unawares," John F Kharshiing, spokesman
of the council, said.
"A local youth who tried to resist
the marauding intruders was dragged to the other side of the border. The
villagers later found his decapitated body close to the border," he told
Indo-Asian News Service by telephone.
The attack had triggered panic among
the border villagers in Meghalaya.
In April, soldiers of the Bangladesh
Rifles entered Pyrdiwah, a village close to Pakhria, and took 28 Indian
Border Security Force guards hostage. The intrusion led to a bloody border
skirmish that left 16 BSF and three BDR soldiers dead.
"We have been demanding of the Indian
government to raise a people's army comprising border villagers to guard
the frontiers," Laborious Manik Syeim, a tribal chieftain, said.
"But our pleas have fallen on deaf
ears. The people will be forced to act on their own if such incidents of
intrusion take place again."
Local villagers say threats from
the Bangladeshis have gone up after Khaleda Zia's election as prime minister
on October 1.
"Immediately after the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party won the general election, we received threats from the
BDR asking us to vacate our homes or face a violent attack," Net Suchen,
headman of Pyrdiwah village, said.
"We are spending sleepless nights,"
he added.
Indo-Asian News Service
