First step into enclave by police - Cops register arson FIR in Mashaldanga days after land boundary pact

Cooch Behar police superintendent Rajesh Yadav (centre) at Mashaldanga on
Monday. picture by Main Uddin Chist

TT, Cooch Behar, June 8:The Cooch Behar district administration for the first time registered an FIR in what is the Bangladeshi enclave of Mashaldanga, days after the land boundary agreement was signed in Dhaka.

District officials like the police superintendent and the subdivisional officer visited the spot of an arson - miscreants allegedly from the Indian mainland had set a haystack on fire and looted paddy and livestock from a house last night - and assured the residents of all steps to see that such incidents did not occur in the area again.

Subdivisional officer of Dinhata, Krishanva Ghosh, who visited Mashaldanga today, said the administration was seeing to it that peace was maintained in the area. "I had visited the house that was attacked last night and I spoken to the residents who are affected. We are ensuring that law and order is maintained in the area at all cost. I have told the residents there to contact us and the police if they have any problem," Ghosh said.

Police superintendent Rajesh Yadav who also visited the spot said extra security was being provided to ensure that there was no breach of peace.

"We have already arrested one person in connection with the incident. He has been identified as Biplab Barman, 30, a resident of adjacent Battala (which is in the Indian mainland). He was produced before the subdivisional judicial magistrate's court and remanded in three days' police custody. We are interrogating him to find out the identity of the others involved. We have increased patrolling in the area and a police picket has been posted," Yadav said.

Diptiman Sengupta, the assistant secretary of the India Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee, said that the intervention of the administration in an incident in the enclave was a positive development. "The Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh has been formalised by both countries. For the first time the Indian administration has not only stepped in to prevent crime inside an enclave, a police complaint by an enclave dweller was also recorded for the first time." He added: "We welcome this as it shows that the Land Boundary Agreement is being honoured by the Indian administration. Earlier, attacks by criminals on residents of Bangladeshi enclaves used to be ignored by the Indian administration."