Shillong : A truck driver was shot dead by the BSF on the Pynursla-Dawki road for allegedly smuggling cattle to the India-Bangla border, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred at Mawshun village under Pynursla Police Station late Friday night.

The 34-year-old driver has been identified as Roning Nongkynrih of Jalynteng village in East Khasi Hills district. Sylvester Nongtnger, the district police chief of East Khasi Hills said police have registered a case after the relative of the deceased filed an FIR at the Pynursla Police station.

He said investigation is on into the incident. According to the handyman of the truck, who is also the brother of the deceased, they were moving to drop some buffaloes when a BSF vehicle overtook and asked it to stop. “When the truck stopped the BSF personnel opened fire and shot dead the driver,” the handyman said.

However, BSF sources said that the truck didn’t stop when asked to stop by a Mobile Check Post (MCP) unit of the BSF at Wahkdait. Instead the truck tried to “hit and run down” the BSF personnel.

“There were four other trucks behind and when the first truck tried to hit and run over the MCP. The BSF personnel fired in the air. An investigation is on at the moment to ascertain the cause of the death of the driver,” a senior BSF official said.

The BSF official further informed that the incident occurred in an area where further down the road was the “unfenced” Indo-Bangla border, which is the hub of cattle smuggling to Bangladesh. After the incident, villagers in the area pelted stones at the BSF camp at Pyrdiwah while demanding that the personnel who opened the fire be handed over to them.

“We have filed a complaint before the police about the stone pelting at our camp,” the BSF official said. Moreover, the other trucks which were trailing behind the first truck have disappeared mysteriously after the shooting incident. “Those too were carrying cattle,” the BSF claimed. Meanwhile, the body of the truck driver has been sent to Shillong Civil hospital for autopsy.