Staff Reporter :
A fresh border killing by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along the Dinajpur border on Wednesday night killed the reiterated commitment of bringing down the border killing to zero, made in the joint statement between Bangladesh and India in Delhi on Thursday.
The incident took place at a time when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is visiting India as the state guest to negotiate multiple bilateral issues including stopping border killing with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
The two leaders expressed their commitment to take the bilateral relations to a new height, but the killing of Bangladesh national on the Bangladesh-India borders has made such commitment questionable.
The joint statement mentioned with satisfaction for significant reduction of border killing, saying “both sides agreed to work towards bringing the number down to zero.”
The two sides also noted with appreciation the stepped up efforts by the two border forces against smuggling of arms, narcotics and fake currency and to prevent trafficking, particularly of women and children.
Reports said that BSF members fired live bullets targeting a number of Bangladeshi nationals, who, it is claimed, were engaged in smuggling near the Dainur border in Dinajpur Sadar on Wednesday night, leaving one killed and another one injured while another guy missing. The deceased was identified as a ninth-grade student Minar, 19, son of Jahangir Hossain of Askorpur Union while Sagar, 20, son of Salman and Emdadul, 28, son of Latifur are missing. It is learnt that they went to India illegally to bring dried turtles.
Dainur Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) BOP Naik Subedar Akhtar Hossain said, “BGB and BSF have exchanged letters in this regard and a flag meeting will be held to bring back the body from BSF custody.”
The use of lethal weapons by the BSF members on Bangladesh-India borders especially the West Bengal border have been criticized often both home and international arena.
The experts repeatedly lashed out BSF firing by lethal weapons on the Bangladeshi nationals on its border infringement. They also said such shootout does not take place on China and Pakistan borders fearing retaliation.
Whenever such killing takes place Indian government defends itself saying that the Bangladeshi nationals also use weapons and in retaliation they also fire in self-defence and protect the border security.
But when incidents like Felani killing take place in broad day light on 7 January 2011, the Indian narration does not match what they claim to be terror activities on borders at night.
When the unarmed smugglers can be arrested without the use of live bullets, the ‘trigger-happy’ BSF members finish the chapters with some bullets.
When India claims that Bangladesh is their historic friend and neighbour, the killing of Bangladeshi nationals does not justify with the commitment, experts said.
According to the BGB headquarters, 161 Bangladeshis were killed at the hands of BSF between January 2015 and June 2022 while 41 others were killed by Indian nationals.
While Ain o Salish Kendra data showed that 23 people were killed along the India-Bangladesh border between January 2021 and June 2022.
The reiterated commitment to bring down the killing, injuring or beating of unarmed nationals of both countries to zero also came up during the BGB and BSF five-day conference in the BGB Headquarters in the capital in July this year. BSF Director General Pankaj Kumar Singh then argued that those killed on the borders were all listed criminals. “They are listed and notorious criminals,” he claimed.
“When the criminals came to know that the BSF was using non-lethal weapons, they started hitting them with sharp weapons, leaving 98 BSF personnel injured in recent years,” he noted.
He, however, said that the Indian side understood the situation and decided to work together with harmony, cohesion, trust, and understanding to bring down the border killing to zero level.
Meanwhile, the opposition political parties are crticising the government for its failure to bring ‘a mug of water’ from Teesta River and condemned Indian BSF shootout killing an unarmed Bangladeshi national when Sheikh Hasina did not wrap up its official visit.
