Two Bangladeshi smugglers were shot dead by the BSF in West Bengal's Nadia district, officials said on Sunday.

The incident happened at the international border in Govindpur in Krishnaganj police station area around midnight, they said.

At first, a group of Bangladeshi smugglers tried to sneak into India by cutting the newly-built barbed fence but when the force's patrol unit fired a few rounds in the air they fled, BSF's DIG (Eastern Command) SS Guleria told PTI.

"After some time, when a BSF search party was patrolling the area, this group attacked them with weapons. In self-defence, the BSF personnel had to open fire in which two Bangladeshi smugglers were killed," he said.

The BSF informed the local police and handed over the bodies to them. The bodies were sent to the Shaktinagar District Hospital for post-mortem examination, a police officer said.

The two killed are yet to be unidentified, he said.

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