National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh(NHRC) to ask Indian watchdog to look into border killing 'Killing of unarmed and innocent people in the border is frustrating and highly disappointing,' the commission chairman, Mizanur Rahman, told New Age  The National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh will formally request the National Human Rights Commission of India to look into repeated killing of Bangladeshi civilians by India's Border Security Force in the frontiers.(The New Age BD) The commission will also request its Indian counterpart to recommend that the Indian government should take measures against killing of unarmed and innocent people in the border. 'Killing of unarmed and innocent people in the border is frustrating and highly disappointing,' the commission chairman, Mizanur Rahman, told New Age on Wednesday. The commission will send an e-mail requesting the Indian National Human Rights Commission to look into border killings, he said.The commission will also send a formal letter making the same request, he said. The Border Security Force on January 7 shot dead Felani after she got entangled in barbed-wire fence on the Kurigram border.Felani, 15, was reportedly returning to Bangladesh with her father Nurul Islam Nuru, a resident of south Ramkhana at Nageswari in Kurigram, from Delhi, where they worked after her marriage with a boy in Bangladesh had been arranged. The Indian guards on January 8 shot dead Bangladeshi cattle traders, Sirajul Islam and Jaheduddin, residents of Bhugolbari at Shibganj in Chapainawabganj, in the Khanpur frontier in Rajshahi, sources in the Border Guards Bangladesh said. The Indian guards on December 24, 2010 beat to death a Bangladeshi cattle trader. Tajerul Islam, 30, a resident of Shibganj in Chapainawabganj, in the same place. According to human rights organisation Odhikar, BSF kills one Bangladeshi every four days. The organisation also claimed that 74 Bangladeshis were killed, 72 injured and 43 were abducted in 2010. Mizanur Rahman said, 'We have been protesting at civilian's killing for long time. I personally requested my Indian counterpart Justice KG Balakrishnan in November [2010] but no result has as yet been noticed in this regard.' So, he said, there is no way but to send a letter to the Indian counterparts to take steps when the Indian guards continue killing Bangladeshi civilians. He said both the Bangladesh and Indian governments should ensure that no innocent and unarmed people are killed in the border. New York-based human rights group Human Rights Watch, in its report published on December 9, 2010 said the Indian government should prosecute BSF soldiers responsible for serious human rights abuses like indiscriminate use of force, arbitrary detention, torture, and killings. The HRW Asia division deputy director, Phil Robertson, on December 13, 2010 in Dhaka urged the Indian government to establish an independent and impartial commission of inquiry into serious violations of international human rights law by the Border Security Force. Mizanur also discussed the issue with Balakrishnan when the latter attended an international conference in Dhaka in 2010. 'We have raised this issue with the Indian Human Rights Commission and Justice KG Balakrishnanhas said that he would try to exert utmost pressure on the Indian government to stop disproportionate force used on unarmed citizens,' Mizanur had told New Age after the conference. Indian rights watchdog Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has also been requesting for long the Indian commission and the government to take appropriate measures to stop such border killings by BSF soldiers. No steps, however, have yet been taken by either the Indian commission or the Indian government to stop such killings despite this being taken up at the highest level. While the Indian government often claims that the National Human Rights Commission of India acts as a watchdog, the commission cannot independently investigate allegations against federal forces including the BSF, according to MASUM. BSF personnel are also not accountable to the local administration, the police, or to human rights institutions. The police, in fact, often refuse to register complaints against the BSF, according to the Indian human rights organisation. Under India's Border Security Force Act, BSF personnel cannot be prosecuted in civilian courts without approval from the federal home ministry — permission that is seldom granted. |
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