Staff Reporter :
Amid the heightening strain relations between Dhaka and Delhi, a Bangladeshi national was killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along the Panchagarh border on Friday morning.
According to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), the deceased was identified as Anwar Hossain, 40, son of Rafiqul Islam of Debangarh union in Tetulia upazila.
The incident took place at Mominpara in Panchagarh’s Sadar under the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) 56 Battalion in Nilphamari and India’s Shingpara.
According to BGB, a group of cattle traders including Anwar had
crossed Indian border on Thursday night to bring cows.
While returning with cattle early Friday morning, members of the BSF’s Chanakia Camp under the 93rd Battalion opened fire, killing Anwar on the spot.
BSF later took away his body along with two cows. The others managed to flee back to Bangladesh.
Hearing sound of gunshots and to prevent smugglers, the BGB members also fired blank shots.
Lt Col Sheikh Mohammad Badruddoza, commandant of the BGB-56 Battalion in Nilphamari, told the media that they would strongly protest the killing.
Every year many Bangladeshis are killed in the hands of BSF who claim to justify the incident saying that these people are smugglers or terrorists.
But when killings like a 10-year old Felani and 14-year old Swarna Das are reported, then it raises a big question about the claim of BSF who use lethal weapons.
According to different Bangladeshi rights group, the border killings by BSF have not been reduced to zero despite repeated pledges of India.
Rights group Odhikar reported that some 1,236 Bangladeshi nationals were killed and 1,145 wounded in BSF shootings between 2000 and 2020.
Another human rights organization Ain O Salish Kendra reported that some 23 Bangladeshi nations were killed in 2023 while 16 people in 2022. In 2021, the figure was 16 against 42 in 2020.
The previous government Awami League claimed that they requested Delhi to bring down the border killing to zero, but in reality such pledges have not been translated into action.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina in mass upsurge on August 5, the interim government of Bangladesh led by Muhammad Yunus began to protest such border killings.
An adviser to the Interim Government Brig (retd) Shakhawat Hossain in August urged the BGB not to show their back on the border.
“A force like the BGB was instructed to show its back on the border. Our people are killed on the border. I have asked them not to show their back now. Enough is enough,” he said.
Due to the regime change, India is giving a cold shoulder to the new administration of Bangladesh and the situation is rather deteriorating as incidents are taking place one after another to weaken the bilateral relations.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that both countries are going to sit at the secretary level meeting the Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) in Dhaka on Monday when the border issues will also be discussed.
Rights group expect that Delhi would keep its recurrent promises to bring down the border killings to zero.
