BORDER KILLING: Repeated promises go unimplemented

Bangladesh reiterated its concern over border killings along the shared border with India as the director general-level border conference between the Border Guard Bangladesh and the Indian Border Security Force began in Dhaka on Sunday.

‘Border killing is the top on our agenda. We do not want a single killing and the meeting discusses the way forward to bring the border killing to zero,’ said BGB headquarters spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Fayzur Rahman over the six-monthly talks.

He said that both sides followed up on their respective commitments made to each other in the past meeting held in India in December 2020.

Ain o Salish Kendra data showed that 23 people were killed along the India-Bangladesh border between January 2021 and June 2022. According to the Dhaka-based rights group, most of the victims were shot to death by BSF.

At least 1,253 Bangladeshis were killed along the border by the BSF between 2000 and 2021, according to the data shared by another rights group Odhikar.

Retired Major General Shahidul Haque termed the killing of Bangladeshis along the international border with India as ‘disgraceful’ and said it should be stopped by any means.

The border killing is one of the main reasons that fuelling anti-Indian sentiment among the Bangladeshi youths, he observed.

Another retired Major General Md Nayeem Ashfaque Chowdhury told New Age that no killing during peacetime was acceptable regardless of how it came.

‘If we conduct joint patrol along the border and maintain communication with  our counterpart constantly why BSF cannot communicate with BGB once they observe an intrusion? This is not a war situation,’ he said.

‘Will someone be wrong if he argues that it’s a failure of our diplomacy and negotiation?’ he questioned.

Both Indian and Bangladeshi rights groups have been campaigning for an inquiry into the shooting deaths alleging that they are mostly fired at from a close distance along the border.

Border killing continued despite many promises made over the years.

The then Indian BSF director general, Rakesh Asthana, at the 50th border conference in 2020 in Dhaka, promised that his force would bring the killing to zero.

In the 51st edition of the talks in India, BGB reported the increased number of deaths at the border and urged its Indian counterpart BSF to bring the number down to zero. The BSF again made a promise.

In the past, the Indian government made assurances that the border killings should be brought to zero and in 2011 the two countries signed a memo to this end but killing and injuring in shootings continued.

At the 48th BGB-BSF summit conference in Dhaka in June 2019, the then BSF chief, Rajani Kant Misra, too termed those killings unfortunate and promised to bring down such killings to zero.

A similar pledge was made by India at the 46th summit in Dhaka between then BGB chief Md Shafeenul Islam and then BSF DG KK Sharma on April 26, 2018.

The same pledge to bring down the border killings to zero was declared by India in the 44th summit in Dhaka between then BGB chief Major General Abul Hossain and then BSF DG KK Sharma on February 21, 2017.

A joint declaration between Bangladesh and India during the visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh on June 7, 2015, read that both prime ministers — Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi — reiterated that the number of deaths at the border must be brought down to zero and directed the authorities concerned and the border forces to work to that effect.

A joint statement issued on September 7, 2011 over the visit of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka also decided to prevent the loss of lives along the border.

In the meeting in Dhaka on Sunday, both sides stressed the need for effective implementation of the Coordinated Border Management Plan and discussed steps to prevent human trafficking and illegal crossing of the international border.

BGB chief Major General Shakil Ahmed is leading a 20-member team while the nine-member Indian delegation is led by BSF’s director general Pankaj Kumar Singh.

The 52nd director general-level conference will conclude on July 21 with the signing of a Joint Record of Discussions.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/176084/repeated-promises-go-unimplemented