Chorus of protest against BSF torture
Cross section of people condemned the incident of brutal torture on a
Bangladeshi national at Chapainawabganj-Murshidabad border by the
Indian Border Security Force and blasted the Bangladesh government for
its failure to bring an end to recurrence of such torture and death
along the frontier.
They said the latest incident of brutal torture on a Bangladeshi
national at Chapainawabganj-Murshidabad border by the Indian BSF,
which was widely covered by both Indian and Bangladeshi media, exposed
the weak and submissive foreign policy of the government.
A disturbing video broadcast by the media including NDTV showed a
group of jawans beating up a young man ruthlessly near the Bangladesh
border after he allegedly refused to pay them a bribe. The victim is
seen lying on the ground with his hands and feet tied as the BSF men
in uniform tortured and stripped him.
Abbas Faiz of Amnesty International South Asia said, 'This incident of
torture is only the tip of an iceberg. It is not an isolated incident
as dozens of Bangladeshis are believed to be tortured or ill-treated
after being picked up by Indian border security guards every month.
Also the news that eight Indian security guards have been suspended is
not in itself a sign that BSF officials are on the look out to address
such human rights violations. Remember that these guards were
suspended after the video footage was aired by Indian TV stations,
which embarrassed the BSF.'
He said, 'Many such incidents take place with no action taken against
the Indian border guards because the victims do not dare to speak
about it, fearing they might receive the same treatment again, or if
they do, no one listens to them. This is a porous border and many of
the people who cross the border have families on both sides.
'The government of Bangladesh must ensure the security and well being
of its citizens in the border areas, and the government of India must
take decisive steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents,' Faiz
told New Age.
International relations professor at Dhaka University, Amena Mohsin,
said repeated incidents of gross human rights violation along the
border was culmination of a long ground work and the Bangladesh
government's failure to raise protest against it.
'It did not take place all on a sudden. Our foreign policy seems to
have failed to protect the lives and rights of people residing along
the border. The audacious attitude of Indian border guards has not
created in a single day,' she said. 'The government's performance on
the diplomatic end was weak over the past years. We got nothing but
only bunch of assurance.'
Amena also observed that there were also failures of the civil society
in putting due pressure on both the governments to bring an end to
such incidents. 'Almost all the victims of killing or torture on the
border were merginalised. I think some kind of class character acts to
respond to the issues,' she said.
'We are not talking of connectivity. I do not understand for whom the
connectivity would be established, for only the elite business
people?' she asked.
Former chief of army staff, Mahbubur Rahman, also a member of the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee, said, 'I got stunned
seeing the news. It is an extreme manifestation of the failure of our
foreign policy.'
'Indians are continuing with killing and torturing Bangladeshis along
the border and the Indian ministers were assuring that it would not
continue. The latest incident proves that their assurances were
nothing but lies at state-level,' he said.
Mahbub said the continued killing and torture along the border was a
dangerous signal for national security. 'The government should
strongly protest against it. Why the prime minister and other
ministers are still silent? They should speak to their counterparts
and bring an end to such unexpected happenings.'
Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra condemned the incident of torturing a
Bangladeshi youth by BSF after stripping him off. 'Local and
international rights groups were continuously demanding to stop
torturing innocent people by the BSF and despite repeated assurances
from the BSF such barbaric torture was yet to be stopped,' said the
organisation. 'More than 1,000 people were killed and innumerable
people were tortured in last one decade.'
The organisation demanded exemplary punishment to the BSF personnel
involved with the incident and called on Bangladesh government to take
proper diplomatic move to stop torture along the border, said a
statement signed by ASK executive director Sultana Kamal.
Rights group Odhikar secretary, Adilur Rahman Khan, said
Bangladesh-India border has turned into the bloodiest border in the
world. 'More than 1,000 people were killed in past one decade. The
news came in media were only a partial exposure to such torture.
'The Indian government is using BSF to torture Bangladeshis which they
also use in containing the struggle for self-determination within that
country. We urge all democratic forces and people of South Asia to
raise voice against such acts and also condemn the subservient foreign
policy,' he said.
Jurist Shah Deen Malik said it was good to see that actions were being
taken for at least one horrific incident committed by Indian border
guards. 'The Bangladesh government should at least be informed of the
measures taken by the Indian authorities,' he said.
Badruddin Umar, president of Jatiya Mukti Council, said that the
AL-led government has opted for a foreign policy just to please the
Indian government. 'As a result, the Indian government is violating
all its commitments and our government failed to oppose the BSF
attacks,' Umar said.
Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khalequzzman said such
incidents of torture by BSF were nothing new. It drew public attention
for the exposure of the video footage in media. 'It is absolute
failure on the part of our government as it opted for a subservient
foreign policy,' he said.
Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon termed the
attack by the BSF on a Bangladeshi youth 'unfortunate.'
'The Indian government is continuing with assurances to stop such
attacks in the border areas but the commitment remained unfulfilled.
We want that the Indian government must take steps for stopping such
unwanted incidents,' he said.
The general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh Mujahidul
Islam Selim termed the attack of the BSF as brutal and barbaric and
said the foreign ministry became totally dependent on imperialism and
lost courage to protest against such acts.
Dhaka University political science teacher Shantanu Majumder said
Bangladesh should force the Indian government to stop recurrence of
such incidents. 'For years, such incidents were continuing along the
border and successive governments including those are know as
anti-Indian failed to stop it.'
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/47634.html
On 1/20/12, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
> India: To end Indian BSF violence what more does it require?
>
> The Asian Human Rights Commission
>
> The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and its partner organisation,
> the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), have been
> documenting and reporting cases of extreme forms of brutality
> committed by the Border Security Force (BSF) stationed along the
> Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal state. The latest is a video of
> extreme torture by the BSF of a civilian that reportedly happened on
> 16 January 2012. The video shows blood-chilling torture, committed by
> the BSF. The incident is a shame and the brutality documented
> alarming, suggesting that the officers require psychiatric assistance,
> a condition that challenges their very legitimacy to guard the
> country's border.
>
> Since the past eight years, MASUM is reporting directly and through
> international human rights organisations like the AHRC, cases against
> the BSF to the Indian authorities. So far MASUM has reported about 800
> cases. These are cases of torture and other forms of custodial
> violence, rape, murder, extortion and corruption. The AHRC is not
> aware of any open and credible action taken against any of the
> officers mentioned in these cases, though every possible detail has
> been provided to the authorities.
>
> Every case report includes a narrative of the incident, the name of
> the BSF officers involved, that of the outpost and battalion where the
> officers were stationed, the name of the police station having
> jurisdiction over the place where the incident happened, the name of
> the witnesses and their statements as recorded by MASUM, and the name
> and other details of the victim. This information is sent to officers,
> including but not limited to the Director General of the BSF, Union
> Home Minister, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Chief
> Minister and Home Minister of West Bengal, Inspector General of Police
> and the District Magistrate having jurisdiction upon the area where
> the incident happened. These cases reported globally are available at
> AHRC's Urgent Appeals website where cases from India are reported.
>
> Each one of these communication calls for specific actions to be taken
> in the incident, at the very minimum, recording the complaint of the
> victim and the statements of the witnesses. However, according to the
> information available to the AHRC, not in a single case the BSF
> command has initiated a credible enquiry or taken effective corrective
> measures against the officers. Neither has the BSF nor the government
> cared to acknowledge the receipt of these communications. The response
> from the NHRC also has been thus far disheartening.
>
> The NHRC's action is always to direct the state police to investigate
> the case. The reports prepared by the West Bengal state police, always
> absolve the BSF from responsibility and accuses the victim as a
> cross-border smuggler or someone who tried attacking the BSF, when
> stopped for questioning. The AHRC and MASUM have been repeatedly
> contenting that such reports are farce and would do further damage to
> the morale of the BSF and of the people living along the
> Indo-Bangladesh border. The proof is the video.
>
> It is a cruel joke, that the Raninagar police have claimed that they
> have not investigated the incident, as late as today, since they are
> yet to get a complaint regarding the event. Perhaps the West Bengal
> police have a new Criminal Procedure Code that requires them to
> receive a formal complaint to act upon a gruesome crime. Or is the
> response underlining the fact that the state police always shy away
> from taking any action against the BSF? The AHRC has been requesting
> the Government of West Bengal that it should seriously consider the
> fact that the rank and file of the state police stationed in areas
> where the BSF operates is suffering from a high degree of
> demoralisation.
>
> When the video was aired yesterday through local television channels
> in West Bengal, the administration has taken 'action'. This is the
> suspension of eight BSF officers and the transferring of the District
> Magistrate (DM) and the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Murshidabad
> district. While the response is appreciated, the AHRC is of the
> opinion that this is not enough.
>
> The official defensive statement by the BSF, that the video could be
> as old as 15 years, is nothing but irresponsibility in print. The
> security agency that is mandated to protect the country's border
> should have the minimum knowledge, that mobile telephones with a
> camera, now though common, was exceptionally rare 15 years ago. The
> BSF does not have a case that their officers exposed in the video are
> serving in the same outpost for the past 15 years. If the video is not
> of an incident that happened on 16 January, then on what reason was
> the officers stationed at Charmurasi border outpost suspended?
>
> The video shows officers, identifiable in person, violating every code
> of their operative mandate, in some of the most brutal and inhuman
> manner. It shows the alarming wilt of discipline among the officers.
> Any agency, having such sick officers posted on duty has serious
> reasons to consider overhauling its operative structure to ensure
> basic discipline. In the BSF however, such actions are unlikely to
> happen. At the most the case would end, probably after a decade, with
> some punitive actions taken against the officers who are now placed
> under suspension.
>
> The DM and the SP, of Murshidabad should have known that such
> incidents are common. They cannot content otherwise, since the MASUM
> and the AHRC together have sent these officers some 800 cases during
> the past eight years. These two officers have the legal responsibility
> to answer for what is in the video since had their office been
> diligent enough such incidents would not have repeated. In a case
> reported by the AHRC and MASUM on 19 October 2012, the victim in the
> case was stoned to death by the BSF. The incident happened within the
> jurisdiction of Raninagar Police Station. No action has been taken on
> this case so far. The details of the case are available at
> AHRC-UAC-210-2011.
>
> The Inspector General (IG) of the BSF is also responsible for the
> incident since the IG's office is bound by 'command responsibility'.
> In the same vein, the Inspector-General commanding the South Bengal
> Frontier unit of the BSF and the Commandant and under whom the
> officers involved in the incident served are also to be punished.
> Command responsibility is no legal fiction. It is legal norm, which
> applies in this case without exception.
>
> Most importantly the question that needs to be answered now is that
> what allows the BSF to perpetuate such horrendous forms of violence
> against unarmed civilians? Had the BSF been operating in compliance
> with the Border Security Force Act, 1968 and its Rules 1969, such
> incidents would not have happened. It shows that discipline and
> commitment to duty is not ensured within the rank and file in the
> force. Violence by the BSF against unarmed civilians and other forms
> of corruption and crimes committed by the BSF with impunity is a
> threat to the border security of the nation. Such a BSF is a threat to
> the entire country.
>
> If experience were of any value, one need to see whether, at least in
> this occasion there would be a transparent investigation and
> adjudication. If national security is of any interest to the
> government, it should prove it by taking actions in all cases reported
> to the government, of crimes committed by the BSF. The AHRC is willing
> to once again submit to the Government of India a dossier containing
> details of the cases documented by the AHRC involving the BSF.
>
> ---------------
> For information and comments contact:
> Bijo Francis
> Telephone: +852 - 26986339
> Email: indiadesk@ahrc.asia, southasiadesk@ahrc.asia
>
> http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-014-2012
>
------------------------------------
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