BSF officer critical after attack by smugglers

KOLKATA: A commandant of the Border Security Force (BSF) was critically injured after being attacked by cattle smugglers along the Indo-Bangladesh border near Sonamura in the Sipahijala district of Tripura.
D K Mandal was airlifted from Agartala to Kolkata on Monday morning and admitted to a private hospital along the E M Bypass with severe brain haemorrhage.
“He is the officiating commandant of the battalion and was spending the night at Belardappa BOP near Sonamura.Around 1.50 am on Monday, he received information of cattle being smuggled across the border. Nearly a kilometre from the BOP, he spotted some people moving cattleheads towards the border and stopped his vehicle. Even as he was questioning the people, some of the smugglers started their Bolero smashed it into him from behind. He was thrown 10-15 feet away and suffered serious injuries. The smugglers had escaped by the time reinforcements reached the spot,” said Ashok Kumar Yadav, DIG, BSF, Tripura Frontier.
Mandal was rescued and rushed to Agartala by road. From there he was flown to Kolkata by the morning flight.