A state government team of North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh and senior government officials visited Madhya Balabhut village on Tuesday to take stock after a 19-year-old was shot dead on Sunday night by a BSF posse that had raided the area.

The team met the family members of Shahinur Haque, and spoke to villagers who complained about highhandedness of the BSF personnel and sought action against those behind the murder.

Ghosh assured them that the state government would take steps so that such incidents did not take place in future.

A BSF team had entered the village in search of a group of cattle smugglers. The smugglers had attacked them after the team seized some cattle heads which prompted them to fire, BSF sources had said.

The villagers brushed aside the charges and said that the team shot Shahinur, a weaver, without provocation. “He was a migrant worker and had returned home in the lockdown. We find no reason as to why the BSF should kill him. We want stringent punishment for all those responsible for my son’s death,” Mehena Bibi, his mother, told Ghosh.

Ghosh told reporters that he was visiting the villager on the instructions of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“The BSF is supposed to guard the borders and not kill common people who stay near the borders. I have collected all possible information and have sent a message to the chief minister. Such atrocities by the BSF should be stopped,” he said.