Bangladesh-India
Bengal tea farmer abducted from field, dragged across Bangladesh border
A 35-year-old Indian national was allegedly abducted by a group of Bangladeshi men from a tea garden in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, near the India-Bangladesh border, on Saturday, media reports said.
According to reports, the farmer, identified as Dipankar Gope, was allegedly abducted in retaliation for the arrest of a Bangladeshi national by the Border Security Force (BSF) two days earlier.
Local sources told India Today that on August 6, a Bangladeshi man allegedly attempted to enter India by cutting through the barbed-wire fence along the Chaulhati border. Locals reportedly caught the man and handed him over to the police, suspecting that he was linked to a smuggling network.
Gope was reportedly working in the tea garden and applying pesticides when around 20 Bangladeshi men allegedly crossed the border, surrounded him and forcibly took him into Bangladesh's Panchagarh district.
He was subsequently reportedly handed over to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
The BSF rushed to the area and initiated efforts to secure the Indian national's release. A flag meeting was also held between the BSF and BGB, but Gope has not been released so far.
Sources told NDTV that the BSF remains in regular contact with its Bangladeshi counterpart and has urged the BGB to ensure Gope's immediate and safe return to India.
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