Another day, yet another Bangladeshi killed in the border area by the bullets of Indian Border Force (BSF). According to a UNB report, a Bangladeshi man was killed and two others wounded in firing by the BSF members early Saturday, March 30, along Lalmonirhat border in Kaliganj upazila.
The deceased is Murali Chandra, 44, son of Shusheel Gidal of North Balapara area and the injured are Mizanur Rahman and Liton Mia, residents of neighbouring Chandrapur area.
According to the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB), members of a patrol team of 75-Chitrakot BSF camp opened fire at some Bangladesh cattle traders along the border, leaving Murali dead and two others injured.
According to Ain o Salish Kendra, a human rights organisation in Bangladesh, between 2013 and 2023 a total of 332 individuals were reported killed by the BSF near the Bangladesh-India border, an average of 30 per year.
And that estimate is on the low side. Another rights group reported that at least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in shootings by the BSF between 2000 and 2020.
Earlier this year, a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) member and another Bangladeshi were killed by BSF. The continued killing clearly shows brazen acts of Indian forces who undermine Bangladeshis. They often try to legitimise the firing by claiming that the victims are cattle-smugglers who infiltrate through the porous border. Even if their claim is right, according to international laws, people cannot be killed just like that.
Indian border guards must be well trained to save themselves without killing the alleged infiltrators who are not armed. Therefore, killing them rather than stopping these unarmed people proves Indian soldiers hardly care for the lives of Bangladeshis.
In a bilateral meeting on September 6, 2022, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi agreed to work towards bringing the number of "deaths due to incidents" down to zero.
But the trend was reversed as killing has increased over the last three years. Already the brazen support of the Indian government to Awami League for winning a farcical election created grudges among Bangladeshis and this sort of continuous border killing will surely intensify those feelings.
The Boxer: The author is one of the indefatigable working-class Bangladeshis who have been trying to change the fate of the nation but were betrayed by the ruling elites and autocrats. The name is inspired by a character in George Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm.