Continued border killings
Two Bangladeshi nationals were shot dead on Friday by the Border Security Force of India in another display of its heavy handedness. How such killings can continue unabated, especially given the repeated assurances from the Indian authorities to bring an end to the killing of innocent Bangladeshis remains a mystery. And what is also a mystery is why such killings are happening so frequently.
On September 18 for example, the BSF shot and injured a Bangladeshi young man in Shibganj upazila, Chapainawabganj. A Bangladeshi man was also shot dead by the BSF at Bangerbari border on September 20. Moreover, according to human rights groups, at least 236 Bangladeshis were reportedly killed by the BSF between 2010 and 2015.
In a recent discussion held by The Daily Star on Bangladesh-India relations, the Indian envoy had assured of every measures to bring border deaths down to zero. Apparently there is a gap between the Indian policy makers and the BSF personnel on the ground. That BSF members will refrain from using lethal weapons on unarmed Bangladeshis unless their lives were threatened had been mentioned previously on a number of occasions. Yet, in the most recent case, the two Bangladeshis killed were both unarmed and shot in the back suggesting that they had posed no threat to members of the BSF and were, thus, killed, for no good reason.
Such behaviour by the border guards of a country that Bangladesh considers to be its closest neighbour is unwarranted. It is totally incongruous with the state of bilateral relationship between the two countries. Killing of innocent civilians at the border must end immediately.
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