BSF rescues 30 Bangladeshi enclave residents

India's Border Security Force (BSF) rescued 30 Bangladeshi agricultural labourers who were about to be washed away in a sudden rush of the Teesta river water at Lalmonirhat's Dahagram-Angarpota enclave Wednesday evening.

They had gone to Quaderer Char under Dahagram, some 500 metres from Indian border, on Wednesday morning to harvest maize, but in the evening there was a sudden rush of water coming from the upstream and they did not have any boat to return to the mainland, said sources at Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Dahagram camp.

When the water was rising, BSF men from the nearby Chandni camp in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal watched the situation through binocular and rushed to the char with speedboats. The char later went under water.

"If BSF didn't rescue us and give us shelter, we must have been washed away," said Hazrat Ali, 44, a rescued man living in Dahagram.

"We will be grateful to BSF forever...If they didn't come we must have been dead; our families didn't get our bodies," added Noor Hossain, 42, of the same village.

Labourer Zahurul Islam said they went to the char by a boat, which was supposed to come back and take them back home in the evening but the boatman could not sail in the strong currents.

Mustafizur Rahman, executive engineer at Water Development Board's Dalia office, said the average depth of water was 30 metres in the morning, while in the evening the river flowed at 53 metres, the danger level being 52.4 metres.

Islam Hossain, 46, of Angarpota village, said, "We got shelter in the BSF camp, had meal, and received good behaviour from BSF men."

The BSF men returned them to their homes on Thursday morning.

The people of the enclave, which falls in Cooch Behar, prayed after Juma congregations yesterday, thanking the BSF men.