Kolkata: Coast Guard jawans and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel rushed to Kendo island on the mouth of the Bay of Bengal where some intruding Thai nationals opened fire on Indian fishermen and drove them out on November 9 evening.

Coast Guard officiating commandant commander Raja Putra said that a hovercraft and a Dornier aircraft started for the island early on November 10.

Another hovercraft was also kept ready at Haldia for the same purpose, commander Putra said Haldia. The Coast Guard men were expected to be back by 1.00 pm (IST) and the details could be known only after that, he said.

Sundarbans Development Minister Kanti Ganguly, who was on his way to the remote island, said he would talk to the BSF and Coast Guard personnel after reaching there and taking stock of the situation.

It was not immediately known whether any Indian fishermen were injured in the firing by Thai nationals, the minister said.

The armed Thai nationals reached the area on board about four highly sophisticated trawlers and started fishing threatening the Indian fishermen there, the minister said.

He said it would take about seven to eight hours to reach the inaccessible island where the incident had taken place.

Intrusion particularly from Thailand along the Indo-Bangladesh border was a regular phenomenon, Ganguly said adding such intrusion had been going on for the past 15 to 20 years.

District superintendent of police D K Ganguly said on November 9 night the Indian fishermen reported about the intrusion in the nearby police station at Raidighi after returning from the island.

PTI