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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Human Rights Watch Report: BSF killing with impunity on Bangladesh borders

Human Rights Watch Report: BSF killing with impunity on Bangladesh borders

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published Published on Dec 10, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 10, 2010

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel routinely gun down cattle smugglers and other civilians crossing the border with Bangladesh despite negligible evidence of any crime, says Human Rights Watch (HRW) from America.

The New York-based rights group disclosed this in its 81-page report titled `Trigger Happy: Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border” released on the eve of Human Rights Day (December 10).

“The BSF - responsible for guarding against extremists, drug and weapons smugglers and human traffickers - is instead using its muscle to detain, torture and kill with impunity,” the report added.

While authorities (BSF) say the suspects were killed in self-defense or for evading arrest, the Human Rights Watch said they found no evidence in any death it documented that the person was engaged in any activity that would justify such an extreme response.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, said, “The border force seems to be out of control, with orders to shoot any suspect.”

Ganguly added: “The border force, with a peacetime mission of preventing illegal activity, is acting like it is in a war zone, torturing and killing local residents.”

Many of the 900 Bangladeshis killed over the last decade were poor farmers or laborers taking cattle illegally across the border for trade, the report says. Some were hit by aimless cross-border firing or allegedly executed without due cause, such as 13-year-old Abdur Rakib, killed while catching fish in a lake on the Bangladeshi side.

The report shows that numerous ordinary Indian and Bangladesh citizens in the border areas end up as the victims of BSF “abuses, which range from verbal abuse and intimidation to torture, beatings and killings”.

Because of the absence of effective accountability mechanisms for abuses carried out by BSF, even the most serious abuses go unpunished. “This sends a clear message that the Indian government finds such abuses acceptable,” it said.

In several of the cases documented in this report, victims were beaten up or killed while smuggling cattle across the border at night. Others were tortured or killed merely on suspicion of being involved in cattle-rustling.

Quoting Abdus Sobhan Shikdar, Home Secretary of Bangladesh, the report said that Bangladesh was discussing with India the possibility of guards using weapons other than firearms.

“We always request Indian government not to kill our people along the border, whatever the cause is, but the people on the ground sometimes overstep,” said Sobhan Shikder.

The report recommended the Indian government should publicly order the BSF to abide by the United Nations basic principles on the use of force and firearms. In case of abuses against Indian and Bangladesh nationals, the police must register complaints filed against the BSF. Indian government should establish an independent and impartial commission of inquiry into serious “violations” of international human rights law by BSF.

Indian border officials say their Bangladeshi counterparts do not do enough to prevent illegal cross-border smuggling. Cattle-rustling in particular is rife.

The Indian government says it is seeking to contain the smuggling and mass economic migration from Bangladesh. In recent years, India has also alleged that separatist militants in its northeastern states find sanctuary in Bangladesh and cross into India to perpetrate terrorist attacks.

However, “few of those killed by BSF have ever been shown to have been involved in terrorism,” the report says.


Priyo.com, 10 December, 2010, http://www.priyo.com/story/2010/dec/10/13993-human-rights-watch-report-bsf-killing-impunity-bangladesh-borders


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