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print versionNew Age (Bangladesh), 8 April 2014
Border killing continues
THE killing of Bangladeshis on the Bangladesh-India border continues. In the latest such incident, according to a report published in New Age on Monday, a group of Indian nationals pounced on five Bangladeshi cattle traders on the suspicion that they were cattle thieves and beat three of them to death at Gaura in the Indian town of Khowai bordering Habiganj. While the Border Security Force was apparently not involved in the killing, there are reasons to believe that the killers could very well have been inspired by the impunity with which the Indian border sentinels have killed hundreds of Bangladeshis over the years. Moreover, the BSF is reported to have orchestrated intrusion of Indian nationals into Bangladesh on a number of occasions, either to catch fish or harvest crops.
It is worth noting that the Indian government and the BSF top brass have time and again assured and reassured their Bangladesh counterparts of effective steps against border killing. However, such steps have been hardly forthcoming thus far. It is also worth noting that the Indian authorities have failed to deliver on its promise to bring the perpetrators of the Felani murder in January 2011 to justice. The suspected killer of Felani, a minor girl who was shot dead on her way back home in Kurigram with her father and whose body was left to dangle on the barbed-wire fence for hours, was prosecuted alright but only to be pronounced not guilty.
Regrettably still, the Awami League-led government, in power since January 2009, has thus far abysmally failed to impress upon its Indian counterpart the growing public concern over repeated killings on the border. Against such a grim backdrop, it would perhaps be not far-fetched to conclude that people on the other side of the border may increasingly feel justified in killing Bangladeshis on mere suspicion. It is all the more so given the express reluctance of the Indian authorities to bring the perpetrators of such killings to book and, worse still, the Bangladesh government’s apparent inability or unwillingness to pursue justice.
Encouragingly, the rights-conscious sections of Indian society have consistently condemned such violations of human rights on the border and criticised their government’s failure to put an end to these, just as their Bangladesh counterparts have done. It is time that these forces should join hands, intensify protests against such flagrant violations of human rights on the border, and bring the pressure to bear on both Dhaka and New Delhi so that effective steps are taken to end border killings.
