Govt wants ends of border killings through negotiations

Staff Reporter :
The government wants end of the border killings through negotiations with India as both countries have common interests.
“Border killing is not at all desirable. There lies a very good relation between the two prime ministers of Bangladesh and India. India also doesn’t want any killing on borders. The number of border killings has come down compared with the previous years. The border killing will be cut down to zero through good relations,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said on Saturday.
While addressing as the Chief Guest of the platinum jubilee celebration of Church of God High School in Lalmonirhat, the State Minister said, “Both countries have talked about border killing in Delhi recently. The residents living near the borders are being told not to intrude through borders of India illegally.”
To cut the border killings to zero, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the latter’s visit to India in September to reduce such incidents of killings by Border Security Force (BSF) to zero.
But it was witnessed that such border killing took place in Dinajpur border when Sheikh Hasina did not finish her four-day state visit with Narendra Modi in Delhi.
At that time a 17-year-old Bangladeshi boy was shot dead by BSF on the Dainur border of Dinajpur Sadar Upazila on September 7.
Later Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen at that time said that such an incident was ‘painful and shocking’ for the family members and for the countrymen as well.
In reply to a query of the journalists that the BSF did not return six bodies of Bangladeshi nationals in the last one and a half years, Shariar Alam said that the matter was not known to him. Howbeit, he assures that necessary steps would be taken after pursuing the issue with India.
Border killing across the Lalmonirhat district takes place frequently, as it happened in the recent time in November this year.
The two Bangladeshi nationals were killed by BSF along the Mohishtoli border of Bhelabari Uion of Aditmari Upazila in November.
The deceased were Waiz Kuruni, 33, son of Sanwar Hossain from Mohishtoli village and Ainal Haque, 27, son of Sadeq Ali from Jharirjhar village.
Police said that relatives brought back the bullet-ridden bodies from the border area and later was sent to Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital for postmortem reports.
The border killing seems unabated though the Indian government gives repeated promises to end such incidents to zero level.
On October 9, BSF killed a Bangladeshi Abu Hasan, 27, along the bordr of Satkhira Sadar Upazila.
Whenever the high-profile meeting takes place between Bangladesh and India, border killing becomes one of the major items on the agenda to talk on the issue to reduce it to zero level.
In July, during a five-day meeting between BGB and BSF in Pilkhana in the capital, they agreed to bring down the border killing, injuring or beating of unarmed nationals of both countries to zero by adopting extra precautionary measures along the international border.
But despite such assurances from different quarters, the border killing is not showing the sign of zero level.
According to the statistics of the BGB headquarters, 161 Bangladeshis were killed by BSF between January 2015 and June 2022.
The data of Ain o Salish Kendra showed that at least 23 people were killed along the India-Bangladesh border between January 2021 and June 2022.
On October 10, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen termed the border killing ‘a shameful act’.
“It is very unfortunate that the Bangladeshi nationals are being killed on the border after a lapse of some time. It has been decided at the highest level that we don’t want to see a single body on the border. But it is continuing. It is unfortunate for us and shameful for India,” he added.
In replying to a query of the journalists in the Foreign Ministry, he said, “India is a big, powerful and democratically matured country. If India cannot keep their forces under control, it is shameful for them.”
Meanwhile, in Lalmonirhat, Shahriar Alam mentioned that the government was holding talks with India to reopen the Moghal Haat Land Port to boost bilateral trades through the port.