Anisul Islam Noor :
At least 15 people have either been shot dead or tortured to death by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in the last five and a half months as they are maintaining ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy.
Different right groups said, it is alarming as the figure is already equal to last year’s total number of border killings.
Data from rights body Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) shows that 46 people were killed along the Indo-Bangla border by the BSF in 2015. The number came down to 31 in 2016 and 24 in 2017.
Almost the victims were unarmed Bangladeshi villagers, many of their offence is trespassing and became the victim ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy.
Such as, in May 10, one Kabirul Hossain Molla trespassed on Indian soil near the border in Satkhira. He wanted to bring some packs of tea. But he was caught and brutally tortured allegedly by some members of the BSF.
At one stage, the BSF men poured petrol into his mouth and rectum. As his condition worsened, they left him on the no-man’s land, instead of giving him any treatment. The 32-year-old died at Satkhira Sadar Hospital hours later, Kabirul’s relatives said.
Rights defenders describe such killings of unarmed and defenseless people as cold-blooded murders.
Another right body Odhikar’s recently published data showed that about 4,259 incidents of violation occurred in last 18 years in India-Bangladesh borders of which 1,144 people were killed at the hands of BSF.
Experts said, it is likely be the highest number of killing in the world of unarmed people in the border of two countries, though the two nations think each other as friend. Despite this friendly mentality, a growing number of killings have not been stopped and people died for the most trivial reasons as gunned down by the Indian BSF guards for allegedly trespassing the Indian territory, along a 4,100 km border with Bangladesh. They said, India and Bangladesh share a common history, and Bangladesh is India’s largest trade partner. The popular culture of India has been enthusiastically embraced across the border. And yet, border guards shoot first and ask questions later, a report of ‘Third World View’ said. Ironic, then, that Indian media have claimed that Bangladesh was found to be the most trusted nation in a recent online survey, with Russia a close second.
If this is the case, then why does the BSF kill so many people along the Bangladesh border?
India has every right to prevent illegal immigration, smuggling and anti-government militant activities, but that right does not extend to the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. There is no justification for a shoot first policy, the report said.
