Yet again some trigger-happy members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) entered a border village in Panchagar in the north of Bangladesh last Sunday night, opened fire indiscriminately on the villagers, killing three people, including a young woman and her baby boy and injuring 15 more. The BSF action on the innocent villagers was unprovoked.
According to an eyewitness account, one of the intruding BSF members, allegedly, shot and killed the young woman and her boy after failing to violate her. The villagers, however, managed to capture the said BSF personnel and handed him over to the BDR after giving a good thrashing.
At a flag meeting between the local sector commanders of BSF and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) held next day, the Indian side regretted the incident and sought forgiveness.
The violation of the borderline between the two countries and killing of innocent Bangladesh villagers by the BSF members have become rather routine events in recent years. According to an unofficial estimate, nearly 800 Bangladeshis have been shot and killed by the BSF during last eight years.
It appears that the BSF is becomingly increasingly intolerant to Bangladesh and under the slightest of pretext its members target Bangladesh citizens living along the border areas.
The height of their animosity towards Bangladesh and its people was highlighted through the last Sunday's incident. India has erected barbed wire fences along most part of its border with Bangladesh. The BSF men made their way through the fence along borderline in Panchagar and launched attack on the villagers.
It is hard to believe that the central administration in New Delhi has ever ordered the BSF men to commit such criminal acts. But, it, apparently, has neither advised them to exercise restraint even after the recurrence of similar incidents frequently.
Through every incident of BSF intrusion and killing of Bangladesh citizens the strength of Bangladesh government is put to taste. Is the failure to respond to such violation of the country's sovereignty on the part of the government from time to time has emboldened the BSF and made the New Delhi indifferent?
There is no denying that the administration in Dhaka acted rather meekly in the face of BSF unwarranted actions. The Sunday's incident is a glaring example. Surprisingly, the foreign office did say or act nothing throughout Monday on the incident. It should have summoned the Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh and demanded of him an explanation. Is an apology from a petty BSF official for such a heinous crime and attack on the country's sovereignty enough?
The priority task of a government, elected or otherwise, of any country is to protect the country and its citizens from the onslaught of external forces. There is no way of shirking this responsibility.
The Indian government, on a number of occasions in the past, had summoned the Bangladesh envoy in New Delhi and made known its annoyance over some border incidents in which there were some casualties on the Indian side.
The issue relating to the recurrence of untoward incidents along Bangladesh-India border came up for discussion at many top-level meetings between the BDR and the BSF and other high officials of the two countries. There were plenty of assurances that steps would be taken to stop recurrence of the same. But there has been no let up in the incidents marked by high-handedness on the part of the BSF men.
Who does not know India is a regional military and an emerging global economic superpower? But is it necessary for the border security forces to demonstrate the mightiness of their country before the small neighbours including Bangladesh? Does the Indian government approve of the belligerent attitude often displayed by a section of BSF men?
Despite intermittent efforts from both India and Bangladesh to improve the no-so-happy relations between them, neither of the close neighbours until now is satisfied. There exist mistrust and irritants, including sharing of waters of the common rivers and huge trade deficit, waiting to be resolved through sincere efforts from both sides.
There is no denying that, rightly or wrongly, there exists a sort of India-phobia among a section of people in Bangladesh. Honestly speaking, some actions or inactions on the part of India have lent credence and helped further spread of that phobia. The border incidents that have claimed so far hundreds of lives of innocent Bangladesh citizens are among those.
The water-sharing issue does no more attract much attention since the act of causing damage to the Bangladesh environment through the construction of the Farakka Barrage is complete by now. It cannot be reversed anyway. The trade in the globalised world is an issue of competition. Blaming a country for not importing enough from a particular country does not make sense. But the border incidents that claim innocent lives whip up popular sentiment. The giant neighbour can go a long way in improving the bilateral relations just by stopping the recurrence of border incidents.
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