Trinamul focus on 'negligence' of BSF over deaths of four minor boys in North Dinajpur
Telegraph | 19 February 2024
The Trinamul leadership has decided to continue to flag the recent deaths of four minor boys in North Dinajpur district at a Border Security Force (BSF) work site, underscoring the "negligence" and "apathy" of the central force at the India-Bangladesh border.
On Monday, state minister and party leader Chandrima Bhattacharya will reach Chetanagach, the village in Chopra block of the district, where the boys, who were between five and 12 years old, were buried under a heap of earth in a trench being dug by an excavator near the border on February 12.
“Chandrima Bhattacharya will be in Chopra tomorrow (Monday). She will meet the bereaved families and join the ongoing silent protest outside the BSF camp,” said a Trinamul functionary on Sunday.
Such trenches are usually dug to curb cattle smuggling, but the BSF allegedly had not informed the administration or panchayat about the task and not put up barricades to keep people away. Although the BSF personnel and local residents recovered the children and took them to a local health centre, doctors pronounced all of them dead.
A number of Trinamul leaders, including chief minister Mamata Banerjee, reacted to the deaths.
“I want the punishment of the BSF…. It is because of them that the boys died. Why can't the Centre send a team to Chopra?” she had said in the Assembly.
On February 13, district Trinamul leaders, along with party workers and locals, launched a silent sit-in demonstration in front of the BSF camp in Daspara of Chopra.
“Today is the sixth day of the demonstration. We will continue it unless the BSF admits to its lapses and announces compensation for the affected families,” said Kanaialal Agarwala, the Trinamul chief of North Dinajpur district.
Trinamul, according to instructions of the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, handed over cash compensation of Rs 3 lakh to each family.
Such moves by Trinamul — continuing with the silent protests and sending senior leaders to the village — hints that the party would use the issue as a poll plank for border areas, said observers. In north Bengal, six of the eight districts (barring Alipurduar and Kalimpong) share borders with Bangladesh.
A political observer said that time and again, Trinamul leaders including Mamata and Abhishek were vocal against the BSF.
“They accused the central security force of being trigger-happy and resorting to highhandedness while pointing out how border villagers bore the brunt. This time, as Lok Sabha polls are near, they are flagging the incident to prove that the BSF is apathetic to them and that the BJP government at the Centre is silent on such cases,” said an observer.