By NNN-APP,
Dhaka : A total of 52 Bangladeshis were gunned down by the Indian border security force (BSF) along the Indo-Bangladesh border during the last six months of the Awami League government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
There has been a significant rise of killings of Bangladeshi people by the Indian border guards despite repeated pledges of Indian authorities to curb such killings, reported daily New Age Wednesday.
The death figure of Bangladeshi nationals in the border areas is almost double compared to the tally of corresponding period of last year when 30 people were killed, according to information available with human rights watchdog Odhikar (Rights).
Among those killed, some 37 people died in the first three months of 2009 while the figure was 3 and 10 in April and May respectively.
During a director general level meeting of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards and BSF held in Dhaka on Aug 20-24, 2008, the then chief of the Indian border guards Ashish Kumar Mitra had said they would show ‘zero tolerance’ to border killings as they did not want anyone to be killed on the frontiers.
The human rights watchdog’s statistics also revealed that apart from killing 52 Bangladeshi nationals in the border areas, the Indian BSF also injured and abducted some 65 Bangladeshis in recent months.
Indian BSF on Tuesday morning gunned downed Rabiul Islam, 30, of Barogram sadar sub-district of Dinajpur district while he was working in the field along the border.
Quoting Fulbari Rifles Battalion sources, the reports said that the BSF members of Doghati camp also injured another Bangladeshi citizen, Anwar, 28, of the same village.
In a recent report, Odhikar revealed that on April 23, Rabindranath Mandal, 45, and his wife Kalyani Rani Mandal, 38, from the village Bolabari under Ashashuni Upazila in Shatkhira, were arrested by BSF from India’s Ghojadanga Camp as they were returning to Shatkhira from India along Main Pillar No 4.
The report said that BSF officers beat Rabindranath to death and tortured and raped Kalyani and left their dead bodies near the Main Pillar Number 4 on the Shatkhira-Lokkhidari border.
The couple had gone to the Nadiya district in India for medical treatment six months ago.
Odhikar said that Indian border guards from Dubli border camp entered into Bangladesh territory on the morning of March 21 and abducted three Bangladeshis namely, Sultan Hossain Dhabok (20), Bokul Hossain Dhabok (19) and Alamgir Hossain Dhabok (18) from the village of Choyghoriya of Boikari Union in Shatkhira.
The following day Sultan and Bokul were rescued after being tortured by the BSF. But the other person, Alamgir, is still missing.