School in Cooch Behar Seeks District Magistrate's Intervention to Protect Students from BSF Harassment

In a letter to the district magistrate on Saturday, representatives of a high school in the Cooch Behar area asked for his help in ensuring the safety of pupils, particularly females.

The letter was sent in response to reports that three Class X girls at the school had been harassed, physically abused, and intimidated by a female Border Security Force (BSF) policeman.

The lady constable stopped the students on November 28 as they were on their way home; they are from a hamlet near the international border. They claim that the policeman improperly frisked them and searched their schoolbags. The policeman became upset when the girls objected, and it is said that he physically and verbally abused the three of them.

One of the females later complained to the police. The BSF counter-complained against them two days later.

"We are concerned about these girls' safety as well as the safety of other local kids. In order to ensure that no kid at our school experiences harassment from the BSF, the management committee of the coeducational upper secondary school has written to the district magistrate pleading for his involvement," a school spokeswoman said.

According to reports, the school has also sent copies of the letter to the BDO and the local SDO.

Following the event, the police opened an investigation. A policeman talked with the girls when he visited their homes on Saturday.

"I visited the aforementioned subdivision and obtained all relevant data. Our officers have been instructed to get local CCTV video in order to ascertain the true nature of the incident. We want to reassure the girls and every other student that they have nothing to be afraid of or uneasy about themselves. The Cooch Behar superintendent of police, Dyutiman Bhattacharya, said, "The police are with them."

Muslim females in border communities have a poor literacy rate, according to a top scholar at Cooch Behar.

Girls on borders would be discouraged from pursuing their education if they had to endure such abuse. He said, "The administration should look into this as it is a serious issue."

The development minister for North Bengal, Udayan Guha, declared: "We will not tolerate the BSF's highhandedness." I'll bring up the topic in the Assembly and promptly inform the chief minister about it."