Killing One Bangladeshi Every Four Days: A Big Fat NO to India
By Farjana Mahbuba
Few years ago, there was a huge debate on boycotting anything from
Denmark. The whole Muslim world was facing an emotional urge to
boycott anything Danish as a Danish cartoonist insulted our Prophet in
his cartoon. One of the logics to this boycott was that it is a means
of protest and in this global economical set up, being economically
boycotted by a significantly large community could be terrible.
However, there were people who were saying that this type of boycott
can do nothing; it`s rather childish and foolish.
Well, now what I`m going to do would also be regarded as childish and
foolish to lots of people, but to me, it`s a decision from my heart.
Yes, for the first time in my life I`m going to boycott a country and
that is India. I`m not taking this decision based on any logic; rather
it is based on my emotion, as a Bangladeshi, and above all as a human
being. From now on I won`t buy anything Indian. This is my personal
protest against the inhuman brutal torture and extra judicial killing
by Indian BSF (Border Security Force) of Bangladeshi citizens in
India-Bangladesh border.
Recently, there has been a well-spread online Youtube video that shows
how a group of BSF`s 105th battalion personnel are torturing a young
Bangladeshi named Habibur Rahman in West Bengal`s Murshidabad border,
stripping him, tying him up, beating him while laughing, making jokes
and drinking tea to enjoy the torture. Because of the excessive and
indiscriminate use of force, arbitrary detention, torture and killing
by Indian border guard at the Bangladesh border, HRW`s (Human Rights
Watch) December 2010`s 81 page report named them the `trigger happy`
BSF.
Not long ago on 7 January 2011, a poor Bangladeshi teenage girl named
Felani made national and international headline because of the degree
of BSF brutality on her. Just one day before her wedding, she was
caught by BSF in the border trying to cross the fence that India has
made around Bangladesh. She got tangled on the barbed wires and
screamed in panic. BSF noticed immediately and shot her. She kept
asking for a bit of water until she bled to death, about 30 minutes
after the shooting. Her dead body was hanging on the fence in the same
manner for about five more hours before her killers took her away.
Felani is not alone in that long procession of murdered Bangladeshi
citizen. According to HRW, in the year 2010, BSF killed 74, injured 72
and kidnapped 43 Bangladeshis. According to the statistics of other
human rights organisation `Odhikar`, BSF killed more than 1,000
Bangladeshis in the past decade; and day by day their killings are
getting creative. Instead of shooting, they now use fatal beatings,
strangling, stoning, poisonous injections etc. Nowadays, they kill one
Bangladeshi every four days, surveyed by Odhikar (find the report in
www.odhikar.org)
With one side to Bay of Bengal and the remaining three sides
surrounded by Indian barbed wire (locals call it the wall of death)
and heavy powerful search lights; Bangladesh now looks like a World
War II concentration camp. On 23 January 2011, Brad Adams wrote in The
Guardian, UK that a single killing by US law enforcement along the
Mexican border makes headlines, but the killing of large numbers of
Bangladeshi villagers by Indian forces has been almost entirely
ignored by the world community.
I`ve always dreamt to have a long travel all over India. There is
someone said that If you travel all over the India, you do not need to
travel the world, because India itself the world! I always tell one of
our Indian family friends to get married soon so that we can take a
trip to India on the occasion of his marriage. But after watching the
online Youtube video footage of BSF`s brutal torture on Habibur
Rahman, sorry friend, my desire to travel to India is gone. I won`t be
coming to India on your wedding. I won`t buy anything produced in your
country. From now on, I won`t watch Indian movies either, even though
I love to watch movies from different countries, different cultures. I
won`t buy anymore Indian music too. I`m simply boycotting your
country, anything from your country. That`s my personal protest
against the inhuman ongoing killings of BSF along Bangladesh border.
I know, I know very well that nothing would happen by my personal
boycott. But I also know that the Great Wall of China is made from
millions of single bricks. I`m one of those millions of bricks. If
Egyptian Tahriri Square revolution can begin from one girl`s
initiative on Facebook, then if I, you and we start to boycott Indian
products today; I believe India will have to feel a shake tomorrow.
However, this is my personal revolution as a Bangladeshi, and above
all as a human being; a revolution to boycott India, to say a big fat
NO to India.
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* Writer of this article is conducting her PhD on Islamic Gender
Studies at Centre for the Studies of Contemporary Muslim Societies,
School of Social Sciences and Psychology in University of Western
Sydney, Australia. She could be reached in her email-
farjanamahbuba@gmail.com
http://thesop.org/story/20120320/killing-one-bangladeshi-every-four-days-a-big-fat-no-to-india.html
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[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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