Indo-Bangla border confce begins today:789 Bangladeshis killed by BSF in over nine years A top-level Indo-Bangla border conference begins in the capital's pilkhana BDR Headquarters today under the lingering shadow of mistrust created by the Indian Border Security Force's indiscriminate killings of 789 Bangladeshis in over nine years on the border violating international laws and disregarding its own pledge not to do so. The three-day Director General (DG)-level border conference is set to deal with a number of important issues including maintaining peace and security on the border strengthening joint patrol and checking smuggling and human trafficking. An 18-member BSF delegation, led by BSF DG ML Kumawat, will attend the conference. On the other hand, the new DG of BDR, Major General Mainul Islam, will lead the 24-member Bangladesh side at the talks- the second such meeting between the two countries after the Feb 25-26 Pilkhana tragedy."Officials from Home, Foreign and Land Ministries and the Bangladesh-India Joint River Commission and high BDR officials will also participate in the conference," according to BDR sources. Despite holding of such bilateral meetings between the two neighbours from time to time and making of pledges therein for restraint and peace, the BSF is virtually on a killing spree on the Bangladesh border. This is evident from a report of the human rights body Odhikar which says: Between 1 January 2000 and 10 July 2009 a total of 789 people were reported killed, 846 injured and 895 abducted by the BSF. BSF carried out 59 such killings this year till 10 July 2009. Odhikar feels that the extra-judicial killings perpetrated by the Indian Border Security Force on Bangladeshi nationals cannot be justified on any pretext, and that international laws have been totally ignored. Furthermore, many of the civilians who were killed were reportedly poor farmers who were working in their fields. It may mentioned, in the latest incident Satkhira police on Saturday rescued two bodies of young men shot dead by Indian BSF on the border river Ichhamati. Before that three Bangladeshis were killed by BSF at Jessore border on Thursday morning. These killings took place only three days after a flag meeting of BDR-BSF was held on Monday at Rangpur border where Indian officers vowed to maintain tension-free peaceful border. In fact, in each of such meetings the Indian side pledges to stop killing Bangladeshis on the border and maintain peaceful atmosphere, but the pledge is seldom fulfilled. According to sources, the huge loss of lives of innocent Bangladeshis in the hands of BSF has turned the oft-repeated pledges made by India for maintaining restraint and peaceful atmosphere on the Indo-Bangladesh borders into a cruel mockery. The brutal action of the BSF is in flagrant violation of international norms and detrimental to good neighbourly relations. And, it is surprising that the government of Bangladesh continues to fail in its duty to take up the matter in right earnest to put an end to the killings by BSF. http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=273935 |
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