Dhaka to inquire about jt probe into border killings

Border Guard Bangladesh will put emphasis on a joint-decision made last year between BGB and Indian Border Security Force over carrying out a joint-investigation into each border killing as both forces sit for a top-level meeting today.
In the 44th director general-level meeting with BSF, BGB would like to discuss why India is running late to implement that decision, officials said.
‘We would like to know why they are delaying in executing the decision agreed upon last year over joint investigations into the border killings,’ a senior BGB official told New Age.
A joint investigation could determine if anyone had resorted to excessive force in a particular border killing incident, he said. 
The home ministry officials assert that BSF always claim that they only shoot Bangladeshi ‘criminals’ who attack them.
The BGB’s deputy director general, Colonel Muhammad Zillur Hoque, said that the issue of border killing and other relating matters would get top priority in the bilateral discussion.
According to BGB headquarters, the decision to carry joint investigations was finalised at the 42nd director general-level talks between the two border forces in Dhaka on May 16, 2016, after a school-student, Shehab Uddin, a resident of Goalpara in Chuadanga, was shot dead at point-blank range on May 14, 2016, when the BSF chief and its delegation were visiting Bangladesh to attend the six-day talks.
The BGB headquarters officials said that they had drafted a joint investigation form which BSF said was yet to be approved by the Indian home ministry. 
Rights organisation Odhikar in a recent report said human rights violations on Bangladeshi citizens continued along India-Bangladesh borders.
More than 28, Bangladeshi civilians were shot dead by India’s border force since mid-May last year when top officials of BGB and BSF were holding discussions in Dhaka, according to the border guard and media reports.
In the last BGB-BSF meeting held in New Delhi in October 2016, BGB had demanded quick implementation of the decision as promised in the previous meeting.
Against this backdrop, the top border-force officials of both the countries is sitting in Peelkhana BGB headquarters to follow up what progress they achieved to lessen killings of civilians along the border.
The 44th director general-level meeting between the two border forces will conclude on February 22 with the signing of joint records of discussions. 
BGB director general Major General Abul Hossain is leading a 29-member Bangladesh delegation while BSF director general KK Sharma is leading India’s 19-member team.
A friendly basketball match between them was held at Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium, the officials said.
According to Bangladesh’s home ministry, 109 Bangladeshi civilians were killed by BSF along the border between January 2012 and April 2016.
Bangladesh shares 4,053 kilometres of border with India.

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