Indian Border Security Force has killed 187 Bangladeshi nationals on the frontiers since January 6, 2009 when the Awami League-led alliance assumed office.
According to figures available with rights organisation Odhikar, 976 Bangladesh nationals were killed, 990 injured, 226 arrested, 956 abducted and 14 were raped by BSF personnel and 184 went missing after allegedly being attacked by them between January 1, 2000 and June 30, 20011.
Between January 6, 2009 and June 30, 2011, the BSF shot dead 187 Bangladeshis, injured 198 and abducted 72, Odhikar reported.
Besides, 92 people went missing after allegedly being attacked by the BSF during the period.
New York-based global human rights group Human Rights Watch in a statement on Monday urged India to take a speedy, fair and transparent criminal investigation into fresh allegations of killings, torture and other abuses by the BSF on the border with Bangladesh.
The government of India should undertake a speedy, fair, and transparent criminal investigation into fresh allegations of killings, torture, and other abuses by the BSF on the border with Bangladesh, the statement said.
The call coincided with India’s ruling alliance leader Sonia Gandhi’s brief tour of Dhaka to attend an international conference on autism.
In December 2010, Human Rights Watch released a report, ‘Trigger Happy’, documenting extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment by the Indian border guards.
After the release of the report, Indian authorities assured Bangladeshi officials that such border killings would be stopped. The government announced that it would order restraint and encourage the use of rubber bullets instead of more lethal ammunition, Human Rights Watch said in the Monday’s statement.
While the number of deaths by shooting has substantially decreased in 2011, the Bangladeshi rights watchdog Odhikar documented at least 17 killings of Bangladeshis by the BSF and other instances of severe abuse since January, the statement said.
Local groups have documented several cases of deaths as a result of severe beatings by the BSF, the HRW said.
-With New Age input
