Syed Shemul Parvez :
Amid a lot of agreements and commitments between Bangladesh-India to bring down border killing at zero level, the brutal murders of Bangladeshi citizens have been continuing almost unilaterally by the India Border Security Force (BSF).
On a good number of occasions in the past, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the BSF agreed to stop the killing and incidents of injuring and beating unarmed nationals of both countries by adopting extra precautionary measures.
On this issue, the major opposition party-BNP- and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have demanded a United Nations (UN) investigation into the killings of Bangladeshi nationals, including the death of BGB soldier recently, along the common borders.
Both the parties expressed deep concern over the recent border killings in separate statements.
In this context, Dr Imtiaz Ahmed, Professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, told The New Nation that the United Nation (UN) has nothing to do with BD-India border killing as it is a bilateral issue between the two friendly countries.
If you see the present status of China-India border, there are no exchanges of cross border firing.
In 1996, China- India made a deal to reduce the rate of firing in the border areas. After that agreement, both India-China didn’t see any major casualties except minor incidents.
But we don’t know why such heinous incidents are occurring in the India-Bangladesh border areas despite being friendly countries, he said.
He suggested following the India-China model in solving the border problem, Dr Ahmed added.
Talking to the New Nation, Dr. Shahdeen Malik, Senior Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court, said, “We don’t know what actually happened in the border areas”. Besides, no researched and data based programs are held in this regard.
Our government as well as those involved in this discipline is not doing the proper jobs to reduce the problems, he added.
Dr. Tawohidul Haque, Associate Professor and Social Criminology, University of Dhaka, told the New Nation that both India and Bangladesh are considered the best friendly countries in the world. But it is seen on the ground that the two countries have the most hostile borders.
There are some law, rules and principals to maintain borders activities between two countries.
If every country follows the proper rules of borders, I think this kinds of incidents could be brought under control, Dr. Tawohidul added.
“According to human rights organisations working on border killings, 245 Bangladeshis were killed on the border at the hands of the BSF in the last nine years, but no investigation or trial of any of the killings have been completed.
Earlier, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, demanded a United Nations (UN) investigation into the killings of Bangladeshi nationals, following a meeting of the party’s standing committee on Saturday (27 January).
Meanwhile, expressing deep concern over the recent border killings, Jamaat’s Acting Amir Mujibur Rahman made the call in a statement on Tuesday (30 January).
“Due to the weak foreign policy of the Awami League government, India is repeatedly killing people on the Bangladesh border,” added the statement.
“We are demanding international investigations and trials under the United Nations for the killing of all Bangladeshis including the BGB member on the India-Bangladesh border,” reads the statement.
On 21 January “The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) member Mohammad Raisuddin near the border in Jashore and another Bangladeshi youth named Rabiul Islam near the border in Lalmonirhat on 28 January.