Desperate to return to their homeland, the 200-odd snake charmers, including 80 children and 70 women, holed up at the Zero Point for the past three days at Satgachi in Cooch-Behar district today braved BDR guns and tried to cross over to the Bangladesh side after another flag meeting this morning failed to resolve the situation.However, the snake charmers were driven back to the Zero Point by BDR jawans and Bangladeshi villagers. The only change in the situation was that earlier they were stuck on the Indian side of the Zero Point, but after today’s abortive attempt they are caught on the Bangladeshi side of the Zero Point.For the BSF it was a significant incident as any untoward incident now would not be on Indian territory. ‘‘The stranded people, including children are suffering extreme exposure and anything can happen any moment,’’ said a BSF official.West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya meanwhile said here today that the stranded people were Bangladeshi nationals and that BDR’s attempt to twist the situation and project that Indian nationals were being pushed into Bangladesh cannot be accepted. PTI reported that evacuation of Satgachi and nearby areas was being considered. “Residents of Satgachi and its nearby areas are likely to be evacuated in view of the high tension along the border,” dig of police (hq) N.C. Ghosh said in Kolkata. Evacuation may start any time, Ghosh said.
