Shahariar Islam Sovon :
The ongoing actions of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along the Bangladesh-India border have ignited widespread condemnation, with experts warning of a clear breach of international law.
The escalating crisis is now poised to strain diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring nations.
In an exclusive interview with The New Nation, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Dr. Mizanur Rahman, lambasted the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) for its ongoing lethal actions along the
Bangladesh-India border.
Dr. Rahman highlighted the urgent need for more than just dialogue between the BSF and the Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) to prevent further border killings.
“Why do BSF always shoot Bangladeshis? Why is no one shot in Pakistani borders?” Dr. Rahman queried, hinting at the potential diplomatic implications behind the relentless border killings.
He condemned the BSF’s actions as grave violations of international law and human rights, stressing that the BSF had no right to take civilian lives, regardless of suspicion.
Drawing attention to a distressing pattern, Dr. Rahman noted that innocent and unarmed Bangladeshi individuals were being targeted without warning or attempts at arrest, even within Bangladeshi territory.
He questioned the disparity in treatment between Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries and underscored the disproportionately high death toll along the Bangladesh-India border.
Dr. Mizan said that border killings are absolutely unexpected. Referring to the killing of the BGB member, he said, “They (the BSF) could have detained the civilians and produced him before a court instead of taking the law into their own hands.
I do not know whether there are any other borders in the world where such a huge number of people are killed on a regular basis. Even the borders of two feuding countries do not experience so many deaths.”
“In most cases, it has become common practice to directly shoot innocent and unarmed Bangladeshi intruders without warning, or, for that matter, not even an attempt to arrest them before shooting.
In some instances, Indian guards are reported to have killed Bangladeshis, mostly common people working on fields, well inside Bangladesh territory,” he added.
Dr. Mizan further stated, “Though India and Bangladesh always claim to be friends, why has the has the Indian force not kept its promises to Bangladesh to stop border killing? The force continues to violate its own promises.”
It is clear that these activities of the Indian guards and India are not neighborly. They are, rather, expressions of the aggressive character of the Indian government against Bangladesh.
‘BSF often claims that its forces open fire in self-defence, whatever the reason is, but they have no rights to kill unarmed innocent people’, he added.
More than 4,000 kilometres of Bangladesh’s 5,000-kilometre border with India have been fenced with barbed wire by India, a sizeable section of which is again electrified.
No other border in the world has such a long-barbed wire fence. The Israel-Palestine border and the Mexico-America border do not have such a big, barbed wire-fenced border.
Despite promises of friendship and cooperation between India and Bangladesh, Dr. Rahman pointed out that the BSF’s actions contradicted these assurances, portraying instead an aggressive stance by the Indian government towards Bangladesh.
He called upon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take decisive action to address the issue, citing her commitment to upholding human rights and fostering national development.
Despite recent talks at the 54th Director General-level border conference in Dhaka, the trend of border killings persists unabated, raising serious questions about the effectiveness of dialogue in addressing the root causes of the issue.
As international scrutiny intensifies and domestic pressure mounts, calls for accountability and justice for the victims of border killings echo across Bangladesh, urging swift and decisive action to end this tragic cycle of violence.
The alarming statistics presented by rights groups, including Odhikar, painted a grim picture of the human cost of border tensions. Over the years, thousands of Bangladeshis have lost their lives or sustained injuries due to BSF shootings, with the numbers showing no sign of abating.
Over 1324 Bangladeshis were killed in the shootings by the BSF between 2000 and 2024. At least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in the shooting by the Indian border force between 2000 and 2020, according to rights group Odhikar.
30 Bangladeshis were killed at the hands of the Indian BSF alone in 2023, while the number was 23, including 16 shooting deaths in 2022. In 2021, the number of shooting deaths was 16, and another was reportedly tortured to death. The rights group recorded 42 shooting deaths in 2020.