BSF’s border arrogance continues

Once again, in violation of the border laws, the Indian Border Security Force as well as some civilians intruded into Bangladesh territory along Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila on Sunday. This time they could not kill anyone but managed to torture Bangladesh farmers, but when they faced resistance from Bangladesh people, they fled after dropping their rifles.
Quoting the BGB, a national daily reported yesterday that two BSF members and three Indian citizens trespassed into two hundred yards inside Bangladesh territory and locked into an altercation with local Bangladeshis. Later, when they found they were going to be overpowered, they fled.
However, if even the BSF this time could kill a Bangladeshi that the BSF usually does without any check, would the matter be any different for the Bangladesh government that has done precious little to stop India to change their unacceptable behaviour along the border?
According to Odhikar, a rights organisation, at least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in shootings by the BSF between 2000 and 2020. Even on February 17, the BSF killed a Bangladeshi day labourer in the border area near the Dinajpur’s Hili land port. Could the Bangladesh government hold India accountable for it?
While the BSF continues the worst kind of border atrocities, a person of such a high position as Director General (DG) of India’s Border Security Force, Pankaj Kumar Singh, said that all Bangladeshis killed on the border were ‘criminals’ while he was on a visit to Dhaka last year.
As justification to BSF’s trigger-happy behaviour, or for illegal intrusion into Bangladesh territory for that matter, Pankaj Kumar Singh then commented that when these criminals overpower BSF officers, lethal weapons are used to stop them. How would they defend Sunday’s incident when the BSF’s members intruded into Bangladesh and later fled, dropping their guns inside Bangladesh’s territory? We fail to understand how Felani overpowered the BSF member that killed her.
India must stop killing citizens of Bangladesh on the border if it believes in justice. India pretends to be a friend of Bangladesh, but its acts along the border do not reflect any such friendship.