THE Border Guard Bangladesh on Wednesday said it had no formal information over the claims of Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla that almost an equal number of people of both the countries were being killed every year along the border. Indian officials often raise allegations of criminal activities along the border, but this was for the first time that it has been claimed the border guard men killed same number of people Bangladesh side killed. Shringla said that 12 Indian nationals were killed and 83 members of Border Security Force were injured in 2019. According to information gathered by rights organisation Odhikar, from 2009 to 2019, a total of 455 Bangladeshi citizens were killed by the Indian Border Security Force. Besides, 657 Bangladeshis were injured and 518 Bangladeshis were allegedly abducted by BSF during this period. In 2019, 41 Bangladeshis were reportedly killed by the BSF. The doubtful information shared by Shringla — that an equal number of Indians were killed by BSF — cannot justify the killing of Bangladeshis in the border.
The proper answer should come from our foreign ministry but we are against border killing without due process of law. The people with guns have a special responsibility to save life unless straight killing is unavoidable. It is of no justification that Indian border guard personnel keep count of men killed by Bangladesh along the border and they decide how many Bangladeshis are to be killed to justify.
To us every life is important and any killing without due process of law must not be justified. It is very easy for Bangladesh and India armed men to kill unarmed helpless people along the border. It is also known that criminal activities go on along the borders of almost every country .The nature only varies.
Both the governments of India and Bangladesh must take the vow the criminals should be caught alive to punish them through the court of law. The killing competition, if there is one, must cease through discussions between the two countries.
