Two inebriated Indian youths raced a pickup van and crashed through the entry gate of the Ghojadanga landport in North 24-Parganas to enter deep inside the Bangladesh territory.
They even crossed the Bhomra port before they were intercepted in a 40-minute drama that started late on Friday night and ended around 12.30am on Saturday.
The vehicle, a Mahindra Bolero van used for chicken deliveries, damaged the gates of both ports as it sped inside Bangladesh before being intercepted by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) near Satkhira town.
Sources revealed that the van, originating from New Town, was halted at the Bakal check post near Satkhira, 12km inside Bangladeshi territory.
The incident has raised serious concerns about the security measures at the highly sensitive international land port.
Senior BSF officials in Calcutta called it a “lesson for the force,” though they attributed it to “errant driving by intoxicated individuals.”
Around 11.50pm on Friday , two men in a white pickup van crashed through the entry gate of the Ghojadanga port, speeding towards the Bhomra port in Bangladesh and hitting two motorcycles.
The BSF battalion-102 could not stop the van from speeding ahead.
Prakash Sarkar, 39, and his assistant Dilu Sarkar, 20, both from Gouranganagar in New Town, North 24-Parganas, were eventually stopped by BGB personnel about 40 minutes after the chase began. By then, the duo crashed into a border gate, a Bhomra check post gate and a bike. Reports from Ghojadanga suggest that before the van crashed through the port gate, it hit an auto-rickshaw, an e-rickshaw, a shop and ran over at least three dogs.
The incident led to a flag meeting between the BSF and BGB early on Saturday.
Speaking to The Telegraph, BSF’s South Bengal Frontier spokesperson, DIG Nilotpal Kumar Pandey admitted the “a crucial lesson”.
BSF authorities are mulling security measures, including spike strips, a step previously avoided as it was thought of as an inconvenience.
BSF authorities requested that the BGB hand over the two Indians.
