Guwahati, March 3: The Assam government will approach the Centre to take up with Bangladesh the issue of infiltrators from that country attacking a woman and her two daughters in Karimganj district on Wednesday.

Parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said in the Assembly today that chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had directed the state home department to send a report about the incident to the Union external affairs ministry so that the matter could be taken up with the Bangladesh government in order to prevent a repeat.

Giving details of the incident, Patowary said four Bangladeshi intruders attacked and injured Kalpana Suklabaidya, 35, and her two daughters Priya, 16, and Priyanka, 14, at Jarapata under Karimganj police station at 1.30am on Wednesday.

Sources said the goons are suspected to be cattle thieves who attacked the trio when they raised a hue and cry.

Jarapata hamlet is located on no man's land on the Indian side (between zero point of India-Bangladesh border and the Indian border fence). India has erected the border fence 150 yards from zero point. However, in some places the no man's land stretches beyond 150 yards, as a result of which many Indian villages have fallen on the other side of the fence.

The issue was raised in the Assembly during zero hour by former chief minister and AGP legislator Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his party colleague Pradip Hazarika.

Replying on behalf of Sonowal, who is also the home minister, Patowary said the BSF has been asked to set up a fixed picket in the area and intensify joint patrols with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) for protection of people living along the international border.

Mahanta suggested that people having houses and agricultural fields on no man's land should be paid compensation by the government and brought inside the fence. It was also his suggestion that the state government discuss the matter with the Centre.

Patowary said the police have registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC, Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, and recorded the victims' statements. Senior police officials have also visited the spot. "All the four accused involved in the attack have been identified. Information has been received that three of them have been apprehended in Bangladesh," he added.

The minister also informed the Assembly that the victims, who had informed the BSF personnel at gate number 35 in the border fencing immediately after the incident, had been admitted to Karimganj civil hospital.