Staff Reporter :
The persistent issue of fatalities along the Bangladesh-India borders at the hands of the Border Security Force (BSF) remains a source of grave concern, notwithstanding repeated assurances to curtail casualties to zero.
Despite pledges to mitigate such tragedies, the lamentable truth persists: lives continue to be needlessly lost.
According to reports from Ain O Shalish Kendra, the toll from BSF shootings stood at a distressing 31 fatalities, with the preceding year of 2020 recording an even higher toll of 47 lives lost.
In a recent statement, Foreign Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud sought to address this pressing issue, highlighting purported reductions in border fatalities attributed to the employment of non-lethal weaponry by the BSF.
Nonetheless, the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) has persistently advocated for the cessation of such tragic occurrences, repeatedly appealing for an end to the loss of innocent lives along the border.
Addressing the tragic events of 26th March, wherein Bangladeshi nationals were fatally shot at the border, Dr. Hasan Mahmud relayed statements from the Indian BSF attributing the incident to alleged border breaches by individuals from Lalmonirhat.
When questioned by the BSF, they surrounded the guards. The BSF in turn opened fire, injuring two people.
“One of them returned to the country, but the other died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in India,” he said.
On the same day, another person was killed at the border in Naogaon. According to media reports, on March 26, a group of Bangladeshi nationals, including Al Amin, attempted to smuggle cattle from India into Bangladesh through the Malda border area. When BSF opened fire, Al-Amin was fatally shot.
The BGB protested these incidents and held a flag meeting as well, said the minister during the press briefing.
Both the countries are closely working to reduce the number of border killing, but the number is not being reduced rather fluctuating every year.
On September 6, 2022, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in a bilateral meeting in Delhi agreed to work together to bring down the border fatalities to zero.
Even in March 2011, during a Director General level meeting of BGB and BSF, it was agreed that BSF would use non-lethal weapons, along with the regular ones, at some border points on a trial basis.
At that time BGB issued a press release and said India would use non-lethal weapons at the entire border area with Bangladesh if the trial brings some fruitful success.
Since then, top-level meetings were held and agreed to use non-lethal weapons, but the shootings on the borders by BSF continues and the killings are also in the rise.
Even Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud after his recent visit to India in February told the journalists that Dhaka and Delhi have agreed on the use of non-lethal weapons to halt border killings.
