By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, October 4 (IslamOnline) - At least four people were killed Thursday, October3, and eight Indian villagers abducted by Bangladeshi "intruders" at Bishnupur, a border village in North Tripura district, Indian police claimed today.

A police spokesman said in one incident a group of heavily-armed Bangladeshis entered the village of Netajipara, 200 kilometres north of Agarthala, and went on the rampage attacking unarmed Indian civilians.

The north-eastern Indian state of Tripura shares a 856-kilometre-long unfenced border with Bangladesh and the village in question is situated about two kilometres from the frontier. The police called the intruders "group of Bangladeshi criminals" who reportedly encircled the village and shot dead one and kidnapped eight villagers.

India's Border Security Force (BSF) sources said the miscreants were accompanied by militants of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura, who have camps in Bangladesh. They killed one person.

Those abducted, including a school teacher, were supporters of Tripura's ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). This means the incident was not a simple case of dacoity. Rather it was of political nature by opponents of the current government Tripura.

In another incident in the Khowai area of west Tripura, three people, including two Bangladeshis and an Indian, were killed in a clash. According to a police officer, a group of Bangladeshi "dacoits" entered the village and on being challenged, fired upon the locals, killing one Indian villager. In retaliatory attacks, two Bangladeshi nationals were killed by the villagers.

Tribal chiefs in Meghalaya have urged the federal government to raise a "people's army" of border villagers to foil alleged intrusion attempts by Bangladesh. Police claim that heavily-armed Bangladeshi intruders enter in big groups to indulge in looting and ransacking of plantations on the Indian side.

According to reports here, soldiers have been put on high alert along the border to defuse tensions.

In April last year, soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) entered Pyrdiwah, a village 100 kilometres east of Shillong, and took 28 Indian BSF soldiers hostage. The forcible intrusion of Pyrdiwah led to a bloody border skirmish that left 16 BSF and three BDR soldiers dead.

In a related development, there was suspense over the intrusion of Indian airspace near Bangladesh borders Thursday by an unidentified aircraft in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district. Police and BSF personnel scoured the pond in which the plane reportedly dropped some objects. Reportedly the colour of the water in the pond changed as a result of the dropping.

According to villagers, a loud noise was heard at about 12.15 pm (0645 GMT) Thursday and they found an aircraft flying at a low altitude towards the Bangladesh border.

West Bengal State Home Secretary AK Deb said that he heard that "one or two aircraft violated our airspace and dropped something into a pond in a village in the Chopra police station area. This is being investigated". Deb added that there was no need to give too much significance to the incident before the investigation was completed.

In a similar incident on December 17, 1995, known as "Purulia armsdrop" huge caches of arms were air dropped in Purulia in the state of West Bengal. It is still a mystery who dropped the arms and who was the beneficiary.  

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