Al Mamun Harun Ur Rashid :
The ‘most dangerous border of the world’ has once again hit the news headline as ‘trigger-happy’ Indian Border Security Force has killed a minor Hindu girl on Moulvibazar border when the South Asian nations bilateral ties remain strained over allowing Sheikh Hasina to stay in India after her fall and fleeing.
Following the border killing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh on Thursday lodged a formal protest with the government of India regarding the killing of a 13-year-old Bangladeshi girl, Shwarna Das, from Juri upazila. She was fatally shot by the BSF on 1 September 2024.
In a protest note sent to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, Bangladesh expressed strong condemnation of this ruthless act and conveyed deep concern over the incident.
The Bangladesh government emphasised that such incidents are both undesirable and unwarranted, violating the provisions of the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities (1975).
The protest note further urged India to halt the recurrence of such heinous acts, conduct thorough investigations into all border killings, identify the responsible parties, and bring them to justice.
Despite repeated pledges to reduce border killings to zero, the issue remains unresolved, with ongoing reports of innocent people being killed by the BSF along the Bangladesh-India border.
The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, which was ousted by a student-people mass upsurge on 5 August 2024, had repeatedly vowed to bring the border killing issue to the highest level to seek a permanent solution. However, despite bilateral agreements, incidents of border killings persist.
In September 2022, during a meeting between former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both leaders agreed to work towards reducing border-related deaths.
However, shortly after these talks, a 17-year-old Bangladeshi boy was shot dead by the BSF along the Dainur border in Dinajpur Sadar upazila on 7 September.
Ain O Salish Kendra, a human rights organisation, reports that more than 200 Bangladeshis were killed by the BSF between January 2018 and December 2023. Among those, 28 people lost their lives, and 31 suffered severe physical abuse in the last year alone.
The deadliest year was 2020 when the BSF shot 42 Bangladeshis and tortured six others to death.