A Trinamul supporter lost his life and seven suffered bullet injuries after a gang of suspected Bangladeshis attacked them at a village in Cooch Behar district on Tuesday morning through an unfenced area along the India-Bangladesh border.

Senior police officers have visited the spot and have spoken to officials of BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). A police camp has been set up in the village.

The incident has led to political repercussions. While Trinamul has alleged that BJP has orchestrated the attack by hiring goons from Bangladesh, BJP has termed it as a fallout of inner differences within the ruling party of the state.

Sources said in the morning, Babu Mian, 34, a resident of Jaridharala village, was returning with seven other Trinamul supporters from Chawratari, a locality, after the campaign.

Jaridharala is located on the Indo-Bangla border. There is no fencing at the border in the area. The village, which is in Dinhata sub-division, is separated from the rest of Cooch Behar district by the Dharala river.

Residents had to take a boat ride to reach other areas of the district. They are largely dependent on nearby areas of Bangladesh for their daily needs.

As Babu and his associates were crossing a jute plantation, a gang of miscreants, suspected to have sneaked into the area from Bangladesh, opened fire at them.

The attackers fired indiscriminately and all seven of them were hit by bullets. Some of them then attacked Babu, who was hit by a bullet in his chest and hacked him with sharp weapons. He died on the spot.

As others raised an alert, locals rushed for help while attackers fled the spot. The villagers informed the police and a team from the Gitaldaha police outpost of Dinhata police station went to the spot.

They shifted the injured to the sub-divisional hospital in Dinhata.

Later, one of them was shifted to a private nursing home in Siliguri while five others were moved into a private nursing home in Cooch Behar.

Police launched a search in the village and seized sharp weapons and empty cartridges from the spot.

Sumit Kumar, the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, later reached the village with a police team. He met BSF officials and also spoke with the BGB that is posted on the other side of the border.

“The place where the attack was organized doesn’t have any fencing. We have spoken with BSF and BGB to nab the attackers who seem to have moved on the other side of the border. A police camp has been set up here to keep the situation under control,” said Kumar.

After the incident, Trinamul blatantly blamed the BJP.

“There is no fencing at the border and BSF controls it. The BJP brought some miscreants from Bangladesh who attacked our supporters. It was done to intimidate our supporters in the village,” said Abhijit De Bhowmik, the Cooch Behar district Trinamul president.

Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister and the MLA of Dinhata, has demanded that governor C V Ananda Bose visit the spot.

The BJP denied the charges. Nisith Pramanik, the Union minister of state for home affairs and the local MP, said they lacked a base in Jaridharala.

“Our party hardly has any support base there. There is no fencing in the area and time and again, the state was asked to acquire land and provide it to the Centre so that fences can be installed. But no land has been provided so far. It might have happened because of differences within Trinamul,” said Pramanik.