Krishnagar, July 10: An elderly couple were hit by bullets fired by BSF jawans chasing and firing at armed cattle smugglers in a Nadia village near the Bangla border.

Gurupada Karmakar, 72 and his wife Saraswati, 65, were shifted to Calcutta’s NRS Hospital in a BSF ambulance this evening after the 4.30am firing that hit them at Banpur village, near Gede border, 130km from Calcutta.

The couple were jolted out of their sleep by the gunshots. Curious, Gurupada, who has cataract in both eyes, stepped into the courtyard when the bullet hit him in the lower back, close to his kidney. Saraswati took the bullet in her collarbone as she followed her husband.

Palash, the couple’s 25-year-old son, said he didn’t know what to do as “bullets were flying all over”. “Both my mother and father slumped to the ground bleeding profusely.”

Villagers rushed to the Karmakars after Palas raised the alarm. Gurupada and Saraswati were taken to Krishnagunj block hospital but the doctors there threw up their hands.

“The doctors told us they had no idea how to operate on the bullet injuries as both were old. They asked us to shift the couple to Krishnagar district hospital,” said local panchayat member Biswajit Haldar, one of those who helped rush the two for treatment.

In Krishnagar, too, doctors found the surgery “tough”. “Both the old man and his wife were in serious condition. If the surgeries were performed here, they might have died. We couldn’t take the risk and referred them to NRS Hospital,” said senior surgeon Dr Sudeb Biswas.

As word about the bullet hit spread, angry villagers marched to the local BSF outpost. Sensing trouble, the Krishnagunj police rushed to the post and pacified the mob.

District magistrate Onkar Singh Meena called up senior BSF officials in Nadia and asked them to punish the guilty. “I have asked them to take necessary steps. The manner in which the old couple were injured is totally unacceptable.”

BSF officials said a preliminary investigation showed their jawans had hit Gurupada and Saraswati accidentally. “The couple had come in the way of the jawans when they were firing at the cattle smugglers,” said Christopher Marandi, the force’s deputy inspector-general.

Marandi promised a thorough investigation. “We will punish the jawans if they are found guilty.”