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Syed Zarir Hussain in Guwahati
Heavily armed intruders, allegedly from Bangladesh, hacked to death an Indian tribal villager after ransacking a border hamlet in Meghalaya, community leaders said on Monday.
The Federation of Ri-War Mihngi Local Dorbars, an influential tribal council, alleged that more than 100 Bangladeshi civilians attacked Pakhria village, 100 km east of Meghalaya's capital Shillong, during the weekend, "ransacking and looting" properties and agricultural produce.
"Armed with long knives and other crude implements, hordes of Bangladeshi nationals attacked the village with the locals totally caught unawares," John F Kharshiing, spokesman of the council, said.
"A local youth who tried to resist the marauding intruders was dragged to the other side of the border. The villagers later found his decapitated body close to the border," he told Indo-Asian News Service by telephone.
The attack had triggered panic among the border villagers in Meghalaya.
In April, soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles entered Pyrdiwah, a village close to Pakhria, and took 28 Indian Border Security Force guards hostage. The intrusion led to a bloody border skirmish that left 16 BSF and three BDR soldiers dead.
"We have been demanding of the Indian government to raise a people's army comprising border villagers to guard the frontiers," Laborious Manik Syeim, a tribal chieftain, said.
"But our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The people will be forced to act on their own if such incidents of intrusion take place again."
Local villagers say threats from the Bangladeshis have gone up after Khaleda Zia's election as prime minister on October 1.
"Immediately after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the general election, we received threats from the BDR asking us to vacate our homes or face a violent attack," Net Suchen, headman of Pyrdiwah village, said.
"We are spending sleepless nights," he added.
Indo-Asian News Service
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