Editorial
Govt needs to assertively raise BSF excesses with India
THE incursion into Bangladesh by Indian nationals through different points of the border at Jaintapur in Sylhet on Sunday is neither isolated nor incidental. According to a report front-paged in New Age on Monday, it was the second time in a week that such trespassing into Bangladesh territory took place. A group of Indian nationals also intruded into Bangladesh territory on February 28, also at the behest of the Border Security of Force of India, which eventually led to an exchange of more than 1,000 gunshots between the border guards of the two countries. Earlier on February 14, the BSF shot at three Bangladeshis at the Shreepur stone quarry after the BDR had stopped a group of Indians from fishing in Kendribil inside Bangladesh territory. Again, on February 4, the BSF kidnapped a BDR soldier at gunpoint and released him more than ten hours later, that too after a flag meeting. Meanwhile, the Indian border guards have killed at 17 Bangladeshi civilians in the first two months of the current calendar year. Overall, the BSF seems to be on a campaign of persistent provocation against their Bangladeshi counterparts.
The timing of the latest BSF-backed incursion of Indian nationals is also curious, came as it did on the eve of a six-day talks between the chiefs of the two country's borders guards in New Delhi, which began on Monday, where the BDR director general is scheduled to raise, among others, the issues of killing of Bangladeshi civilians by the BSF and push-in of Indian national into Bangladesh territory. Here it is pertinent to recall that the BSF killed a Bangladeshi civilian on January 12, the very day when a Dhaka-Delhi joint communiqué was released in New Delhi during the visit of the Bangladesh prime minister to India, in which the two countries agreed, among others, that 'the respective border guarding forces [should] exercise restraint.' While the BDR has all along done just that, the BSF has never appeared to be under any compulsion to rein its trigger-happy personnel. It is hard to believe that the BSF excesses are taking place beyond the knowledge and without the political backing of the Indian government.
As we have written in these columns time and again, the border skirmishes cannot be resolved at the director general-level talks between the border guards of the two countries; these need to be addressed at the highest political level. Regrettably, the Awami League-led government has thus far appeared not adequately assertive in raising the issue of BSF excesses with its Indian counterparts. Worse still, it has appeared somewhat too intent on believing in whatever New Delhi dishes out. That the government has trumpeted the prime minister's recent visit to India as a success although Dhaka has by and large conceded to the many 'requests' from New Delhi in exchange for the latter's oft-repeated assurances for amicable resolution of long-standing disputes that have proven hollow in the past could be a case in point. Be that as it may, the government needs to realise that its counterparts in New Delhi are not doing enough to rein in the trouble-mongering personnel of the BSF. Thus, it needs to seriously and strongly raise the issue with the Indian government so that the trigger-happy BSF personnel are reined in and people in Bangladesh can move about within its territory without any fear or restriction.
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