A Bangladeshi youth was gunned down by BSF personnel near the border in Malda district on Saturday night.

This comes within three weeks of Bangladeshi foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen flagging his country’s concerns over killings on the border.

State police sources said the deceased was Badsha Sheikh of Bangladesh’s Chapai-Nawabganj district. There was, however, no confirmation. Malda SP Alok Rajoria only said that a Bangladeshi national was killed in BSF firing.

BSF sources said some Bangladeshi smugglers were waiting for a cough syrup consignment from their Indian counterparts. Sources said BSF 24th battalion tried to thwart the bid, when the Bangladeshi smugglers injured a BSF jawan with a sharp weapon. It was then that a jawan fired and a Bangladeshi smuggler died.

Others fled from near the fencing, the source said.

The incident once again brought the BSF under scanner as a number of such killings have been reported from parts of the India-Bangladesh border.

Bangladeshis being shot by the BSF, which the security force claimed happens in retaliation or during attempts to stop illegal activities, have been time and again flagged by human rights groups in Bangladesh. It is also considered one of the reasons that at times strains bilateral ties.

Last month when Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visited Bangladesh, his counterpart raised the issue during the bilateral meeting and urged the BSF exercise “maximum restraint.” It was also decided that the issue would be discussed during the DG level talks between BGB (Border Guards of Bangladesh) and BSF.

But BSF officials, who did not want to be named, said smugglers were active on the India-Bangladesh border. They become active especially during monsoon when attempts to smuggle cattle through swelling rivers are quite common, and also smuggle fake Indian currency notes, brown sugar and cough syrup, an official said.

It has been learnt from police sources that Bangladeshi smuggler Mohammed Momin was arrested by Englishbazar police in August last week. He came to Malda from Naogaon district in Bangladesh to finalise a contract of cattle-smuggling with his Indian counterparts. “We got some crucial information while interrogating him, and we are verifying those,” a police officer said.