A BSF jawan drowned in the river Padma near the Bangladesh border while chasing cow smugglers.

The incident which took place on Thursday in Murshidabad district of West Bengal was announced by the South Bengal Frontier authorities of BSF on Monday.

“During the operation, constable Debashis Roy who was part of the ACP party played a very active role in the operation without taking care of his life... During the chase he ran behind the smugglers and jumped into Padma to catch them,” stated a BSF release. 

It also stated that after jumping into the river, Roy got stuck in the mud and drowned.

The incident took place after a BSF patrol party noticed that a group of cow smugglers were heading for Bangladesh with at least 74 cattle heads on board.

The smugglers were also armed with sharp weapons and sticks.

When challenged by the BSF jawans who asked them to stop, the smugglers attacked them. Some of the BSF jawans responded with firing chili grenades and stun grenades at them.

The BSF team was finally able to get hold of 11 Indian and one Bangladeshi smugglers and seized 74 cattle heads.