A youth was shot dead when BSF personnel raided a village in the Tufanganj subdivision of Cooch Behar district on Sunday night to search for alleged cattle smugglers, triggering protests from local people who ransacked an ambulance, blocked roads and prevented police from taking away the body.

The residents of Madhya Balabhut eventually allowed the police to seize the body of Shahinur Haque, 19, around 11am on Monday, almost 15 hours after his death. “There have always been allegations of highhandedness by the BSF from the other side of the border in Bangladesh... Now, Indians are also accusing the BSF of excesses,” said a senior police officer.

Sources said BSF personnel had entered Madhya Balabhut village, which is in Balabhut panchayat, around 8.30pm on Saturday and told some residents that they were in search of cattle smugglers.

“We heard gunshots after they entered the village. After some time, Shahinur Haque was found lying dead with bullet injuries. A young man was killed for no fault of his,” said Minati Das, the pradhan of the Trinamul-run Balabhut panchayat.

The death of Haque, a weaver, sparked protests, prompting deployment of Tufanganj police. North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh raised fingers at the BSF and said he would seek the chief minister’s intervention. “We have seen how certain activities of the BSF along the border have been criticised by the Bangladeshi authorities. Now, the security force that is supposed to guard the border and people living in our country is entering Indian villages and shooting people. I will seek the intervention of the chief minister to stop such atrocities by the BSF along the border,” said Ghosh.

BSF sources, however, claimed that security personnel had to open fire as they had been attacked. “Those involved in cattle smuggling attacked the team. To save themselves, the team opened fire,” said a source.

When the police brought an ambulance to take away the youth’s body for post-mortem on Monday, a section of villagers turned violent and ransacked the vehicle. After Ghosh spoke to the protesters over the phone, they allowed the police to seize the body .

The minister asked why the BSF had entered the village that is not next to the barbed wire fences but a kilometre away. “It is away from the border and we have doubts whether they have any authority at all to raid villages. If they had information of any wrongdoing, they could have intimated the same to the police or planned a joint raid. I will visit the village on Tuesday,” said Ghosh.

A few months back, he said, BSF personnel were accused of ransacking a market in Balarampur that is around 15km from the border. Also, in February, three farmers had suffered bullet injuries after BSF had fired at them at another locality in Tufanganj, the minister said.

Tufanganj subdivisional officer Arabinda Ghosh said: “We are trying to find out why the BSF entered the village. We will also convene an administrative meeting on the issue where officials of the force would be called.”