Agartala,   A Bangladeshi man was killed by BSF troopers in a Tripura village along the India-Bangladesh border on Saturday when he and others attacked them, official sources said.

A Border Security Force (BSF) official said that Bappa Miyan, 32, a Bangladeshi cattle lifter, was killed by the BSF troopers in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday at Yakubnagar border village in northern Tripura.

He said the troopers fired in self defence from a Pump Action Gun (PAG), a non-lethal weapon, as Bappa Miyan accompanied by around 20 other smugglers attacked them with a sharp-edged weapon. A BSF release said that around 20 cattle smugglers of India and Bangladesh were challenged by the troopers when they tried to lift cattle from Yakubnagar village.

"The BSF jawans fired a few rounds from the non-lethal Pump Action Gun after the smugglers on both sides started pelting stones on the BSF party while a few of them started cutting the wires of the border fence from the Bangladesh side," the release said.

It said that Bangladeshi smuggler Bappa Miyan got hit by the PAG pellets and fell on the ground while the remaining smugglers on both sides fled taking advantage of the darkness.

Subsequently, the body of the slain miscreant, a resident of Batoli in Moulvibazar district of Bangladesh, was recovered and would soon be handed over to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Senior BSF and police officials have rushed to the spot and are investigating the incident.

In recent years the BSF has been using non-lethal weapons instead of traditional arms and fired rubber bullets or rubber buckshot or soft polymer rounds or plastic bullets in dealing with border crimes.

BSF officials said that out of the 856 km Tripura's international border with Bangladesh, over 95 per cent has already been fenced and due to the objections raised by the BGB, the remaining portion is yet to be fenced.

"However, we are trying to complete the fencing work within the next few months," the official added.