What were BSF jawans, armed with automatic assault rifles, doing in Decathlon sports store in Guwahati?
On Saturday, a group of armed BSF personnel, armed with AK 47 rifles and 9 mm carbines were seen loitering inside the Decathlon sports store in Guwahati.
Decathlon, the largest sporting goods retailer in the world, has a store at Azara, near the airport in Guwahati.
Were the BSF jawans shopping for the Diwali?
If they were shopping for Diwali, they should have left their guns in their barracks or in the magazine in BSF’s Frontier headquarters at Patgaon.
Also read: Automatic gun-toting SF 10 commandos panic kids in Decathlon in Guwahati
And in case the BSF personnel were on duty, who had authorised them to go shopping in the sports store, and that too, with their guns?
The BSF jawans should not forget that they are the sentinels of the 4,096 km long border with Bangladesh, and that is an immense responsibility.
Because of the difficult terrain, the BSF is struggling to control smuggling of cattle and other contraband, including ecstasy drugs, along the Bangladesh border.
According to the Bangladesh government’s own estimate in 2018, about 10 million heads of cattle was ‘imported’ (read: smuggled) from India every year.
In July this year, Bangladeshi cattle smugglers had hurled bombs at a group of BSF jawans who intercepted them. The bomb attack led to one BSF jawan losing his arm.
While the Bangladesh border is so hostile, it is surprising as to how the BSF jawans could take out time from their duty to go shopping in Decathlon store in Guwahati.
Earlier on October 6, a group of Meghalaya Police’s SF 10 commandoes, armed with assault rifles, were caught on the camera shopping in Decathlon store in Guwahati.
Why blame the SF 10 commandoes alone, when the elite BSF jawans keep the border “open” for Diwali shopping?