The Border Guard Bangladesh chief on Wednesday iterated that continued killing, beating and firing in the frontiers were hampering ties with India as the chief of both the border forces expressed concern about the issues. The BGB director general, Major General Aziz Ahmed, made the statement at joint briefing on the 38th Border Coordination Conference between the director generals of the BGB and the Border Security Force.
The BGB chief said that both the border forces identified spots where killing and firing usually took place and the conference decided to launch joint patrolling in those areas.
Despite repeated assurances, the Indian border force has killed at least 986 Bangladesh nationals, including 15 children, since 2000, according to rights watchdog Odhikar.
In his reply, Border Security Force director general Subhash Joshi, however, said that they were also concern about the incidents.
He claimed that the use of non-lethal and semi-lethal weapons in the borders caused the increase in the number of injuries of his troops.
Subhash also said that they already instructed a court of inquiry about the killing of Bangladeshi youth Faruk Hossain, who was picked up along with others by the Pannapur BSF camp on August 24 intruding into Bangladeshi territory in Naogaon.
In reply to a query, the BSF chief said that ‘justice’ would be done in the Felani Khatun Killing case following the due judicial process.
He said that they were following due judicial process in dealing with the allegations against BSF men and three BSF personal had been given capital punishment in the last five years for their excesses.
The acquittal of the lone accused Amiyo Ghosh in the Felani killing case has triggered strong protests in Bangladesh. The BSF already announced it was going to hold ‘a revision trial’ in the case.
The BSF had shot dead Felani on January 7, 2011, when she was crossing the barbed-wire fences set up by the BSF in the border at Anantapur of Phulbari in Kurigram along with her father.
Replying to another query, Subhash Joshi said that they did not have any plan to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles in the frontier.
‘We have no plans, we neither had any plans nor do we have any plan in the future to deploy any drones and such kind of vehicles,’ the BSF chief said, adding.
In the conference, the Bangladesh side expressed concern over all types of killings in the border, especially those took place after the last DG-level meeting held in New Delhi in March.
BSF has killed 15 Bangladeshi citizens between March and July.
Both the border forces in the conference agreed on six specific agenda by signing a Joint Records of Discussion.
The joint statement of the conference, read out at the briefing by the BGB chief, said that both the sides agreed that incidents of deaths and loss of life on the border were extremely ‘unfortunate and regrettable.’
Both the sides agreed to take all possible measures to bring down the death toll further.
Both the sides have put in place mechanisms which have greatly reduced the scope for such incidents and have strengthened mutual trust and goodwill among the border forces and people living in the border areas, the joint statement said.
Both the sides also agreed to increase frequency of meetings between field-level functionaries and to share real time intelligence for curbing trans-border crimes.
Both the forces agreed to sincerely disseminate the decisions down to the soldiers standing in the borders.
Both the sides agreed to continue close cooperation, including sharing of intelligence and interrogation reports on trafficking, forward and backward links, and follow-up of trials to prevent smuggling of fake currency notes, drugs and narcotics including Phensedyl, the joint statement said.
The conference also decided to complete the joint verification of unfenced patches at the earliest.
On the issue of illegal border crossings and human trafficking, both the sides agreed to maintain the sanctity of the international border and take appropriate steps to prevent such activities.
Both the sides emphasised the importance of sensitisation of border people and agreed to focus on several confidence building measures including specialised training programmes for personnel of both the forces and inter-force shooting competition.
The BSF were also teaching Bangla language to their troops so that they could deal with the Bangla speaking bordering people, the BSF chief said.
The DG-level meeting takes place twice a year, one in Dhaka and another in New Delhi.
Major General Aziz is leading a 19-member Bangladesh team and BSF director general Subhash Joshi is heading a 20-member Indian team in the five-day border talks that will end today.
Five Indian states — West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura — share a 2,429-miles of border stretch with Bangladesh.
-With New Age input
