62 killed in Kurigram frontier alone .There is nothing new in the brutal killing of Felani Khatun by Indian border guards. Such violence along the Bangladesh-India border is routine and arbitrary.
According to available information, Indian security forces have killed nearly 1,000
Bangladeshis, including children, along the border in the last 10 years. No one has been
prosecuted for any of these killings despite evidence in many cases that makes it clear the
killings were in cold blood against unarmed local people.
Among the brutal incidents, Felani’s case got to the court, but no justice at the end of the
day. The ill-fated 15-year-old girl was shot dead by a BSF man while she was entering
Bangladesh over the barbed-wire fences along Anantapur border point in Kurigram
district on January 7, 2011, triggering a huge global outcry.
On Friday, the special court, constituted by the Indian Border Security (BSF), in its
verdict acquitted the lone accused, BSF constable Amiya Ghosh, of the charge of killing
Felani.
Like Felani, her grandfather Hafiz Uddin, was shot dead by BSF troops while crossing
the border 21 years back. With the killing of Felani and her grandfather, the total number
of Bangladesh nationals killed by the BSF at Kurigram border over the last 42 years hit 62.
Sources said eight people were seriously injured while four others kidnapped by the
Indian border guards this year alone. Some 56 people were gunned down while 30 picked
up at Roumari-Rajibpur border in the past 20 years.
Sources at Kurigram police said eight Bangladeshis were killed while 10 injured and
116 kidnapped by BSF in six years from 2006 to 2013. They said BSF troops fired shots
targeting Bangladeshi nationals for 60 times during the period.
Besides, according to them, 81 people of Kurigram have been languishing in different
jails of India.
In most cases, smugglers and human traffickers make the poor and innocent people the
victims of BSF attacks, said Golam Mostafa of a bordering village.
MP from Kurigram-2 M Zafar Ali said that peace will return to Kurigram frontier once
the Land Boundary Pact is signed by both Bangladesh and India. -UNB, Kurigram
