Bangladesh lodged a strong protest with India on Sunday afternoon against the ‘brutal and senseless killing’ of a minor Bangladeshi girl by Indian Border Security Force on the Kurigram border on January 7, a foreign office release said Monday.
The acting foreign secretary Mostafa Kamal summoned high commissioner Rajit Mitter and gave him a note of protest against the killing of 15-year old Felani by the Indian BSF.
The acting foreign secretary conveyed, in a note verbale, the government’s strong feelings against the ‘brutal and senseless killing.’
The Indian BSF shot her dead as Felani was entangled in the barbed-wire fence on the border.
She was returning from Delhi with her father Nurul Islam Nuru to their village home in South Ramkhana, under Nageswari upazila in Kurigram.
The Indian high commissioner said that he would convey the concerns of the Bangladesh government to the Indian authorities for
taking action ‘to prevent the recurrence of such inhuman acts of killing the innocent’ on the border between the two countries, said the press release.
A revised press release, issued later by the foreign ministry, said that the Indian high commissioner assured him that he would convey the concerns of the government of Bangladesh to the appropriate authorities in India.
According to it, the high commissioner expressed the hope that both the countries would be able to work out ways to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future
The home minister, Sahara Khatun said on Sunday that the government would raise the issue of Felani’s killing at the home secretaries’ talks, set to begin in Dhaka tomorrow.
At least four persons were killed by the Indian BSF in January.
The Indian BSF killed one Bangladeshi every four days, according to human rights organisation Odhikar.
It said that that in 2010, BSF shot and killed 74 Bangladeshis, wounded 72 and abducted 43 others.
A joint working group meeting of the two countries to be held today would precede the two-day meeting of the home secretaries of Bangladesh and India.
Frontier killings, border disputes, smuggling of narcotics and capacity building of both countries’ border guards for a more efficient border management, home ministry joint secretary Kamal Uddin Ahmed told New Age.
