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https://www.newagebd.net/article/104763/dhaka-mustnt-be-capitualistic-in-dealing-with-border-killing
Dhaka mustn’t be capitualistic in dealing with border killing
Published: 00:00, Apr 21,2020
WHILE indiscriminate border killing of Bangladeshis by India’s Border Security Force has been a major concern for years, the BSF coming to kill a Bangladeshi teenager, amidst the global health emergency that has affected both Bangladesh and India, on Sunday comes to be deeply shocking. The BSF shot dead the Bangladeshi teenager, a 16-year old student of Talma Government Technical School who appeared in the Secondary School Certificate examinations this year, while he was working on a bordering jute field, well inside the Bangladesh border. The Panchagarh Border Guard Bangladesh commanding officer, who is reported to have sent a protest note to his Indian counterpart in the wake of the killing, has confirmed, as New Age reported on Monday, that the killing took place some 30 yards inside the Bangladesh territory, not an unprecedented happening though. In fact, in most border killing cases, as different rights organisations’ reports show, the BSF shot dead people inside the Bangladesh territory. In some of the latest border killing cases, the BSF is reported to have shot peasants and others working yards inside Bangladesh.
Such indiscriminate border killing by India’s Border Security Force violating all relevant bilateral agreements between Bangladesh and India and international border protocols saw a sharp rise in 2019 — with at least 43 Bangladeshi citizens, according to a report by Ain O Salish Kendra, having been killed, a threefold increase from 14 in the previous year. The spate of border killing, however, appeared to slow down after the border forces of Bangladesh and India held directors general-level talk in December 25–30, 2019 in New Delhi, but only to escalate in the second week of January, making the month one of the bloodiest with about 11 reported border killings taking place that month. India’s border violence, in fact, has reached such a proportion in recent time that many international media and rights organisations termed the Bangladesh-India border as the deadliest. Such terming comes to be not without justification considering that about1,144 Bangladeshis, according to a report by rights organisation Odhikar, were killed by the BSF in 2000–2018. Bangladesh’s capitualistic approach towards India and not being bold enough in raising its voice over the issue and India’s blatant disregard for international border protocols, which never allow the use of lethal weapons and a shoot-to-kill policy at borders, rights activists say, have paved the way for making the Bangladesh-India border the bloodiest.
Despite repeated assurances from the Indian government to bring border killing to zero and to not use lethal weapon, the BSF has always gone for the use of lethal weapons with impunity. The government, in such a situation, must shear off its subservient policy towards India and push for an immediate implementation of zero-border-killing policy and demand investigations into all incidents of torture and killings at borders. At the same time, Bangladesh must take up the issue at international forums as it is a violation of international laws.
Dhaka mustn’t be capitualistic in dealing with border killing
Published: 00:00, Apr 21,2020
WHILE indiscriminate border killing of Bangladeshis by India’s Border Security Force has been a major concern for years, the BSF coming to kill a Bangladeshi teenager, amidst the global health emergency that has affected both Bangladesh and India, on Sunday comes to be deeply shocking. The BSF shot dead the Bangladeshi teenager, a 16-year old student of Talma Government Technical School who appeared in the Secondary School Certificate examinations this year, while he was working on a bordering jute field, well inside the Bangladesh border. The Panchagarh Border Guard Bangladesh commanding officer, who is reported to have sent a protest note to his Indian counterpart in the wake of the killing, has confirmed, as New Age reported on Monday, that the killing took place some 30 yards inside the Bangladesh territory, not an unprecedented happening though. In fact, in most border killing cases, as different rights organisations’ reports show, the BSF shot dead people inside the Bangladesh territory. In some of the latest border killing cases, the BSF is reported to have shot peasants and others working yards inside Bangladesh.
Such indiscriminate border killing by India’s Border Security Force violating all relevant bilateral agreements between Bangladesh and India and international border protocols saw a sharp rise in 2019 — with at least 43 Bangladeshi citizens, according to a report by Ain O Salish Kendra, having been killed, a threefold increase from 14 in the previous year. The spate of border killing, however, appeared to slow down after the border forces of Bangladesh and India held directors general-level talk in December 25–30, 2019 in New Delhi, but only to escalate in the second week of January, making the month one of the bloodiest with about 11 reported border killings taking place that month. India’s border violence, in fact, has reached such a proportion in recent time that many international media and rights organisations termed the Bangladesh-India border as the deadliest. Such terming comes to be not without justification considering that about1,144 Bangladeshis, according to a report by rights organisation Odhikar, were killed by the BSF in 2000–2018. Bangladesh’s capitualistic approach towards India and not being bold enough in raising its voice over the issue and India’s blatant disregard for international border protocols, which never allow the use of lethal weapons and a shoot-to-kill policy at borders, rights activists say, have paved the way for making the Bangladesh-India border the bloodiest.
Despite repeated assurances from the Indian government to bring border killing to zero and to not use lethal weapon, the BSF has always gone for the use of lethal weapons with impunity. The government, in such a situation, must shear off its subservient policy towards India and push for an immediate implementation of zero-border-killing policy and demand investigations into all incidents of torture and killings at borders. At the same time, Bangladesh must take up the issue at international forums as it is a violation of international laws.
