Minister defends border shooting
Wed, Jan 2nd, 2013 7:53 pm BdST
Dhaka, Jan 2 (bdnews24.com)—Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir on Wednesday said Dhaka and New Delhi have agreed to permit their border forces to shoot only in "self defence".
According to the 'Ain o Salish Kendra' (ASK), a human-rights organisation, the Indian border force shot down 48 Bangladeshi nationals in the last year.
"I've talked and concurred with the Indian Home Minister during my last month's visit. No side (BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh) will shoot unless it is in self defence," the minister said at the 23rd anniversary of the Department of Narcotics Control.
On Tuesday, the BSF shot two Bangladeshis dead along Thakurgaon's Haripur border and another two the following day along Chapainawabganj's Gomstapur border.
Alamgir said the deaths were being probed. "If it is found that the border watchdog had fired in self defence, then this matter will be considered."
"And if found otherwise," he continued, "then we'll follow the way in which we've been maintaining relations between the border forces of the neighbouring countries. We'll bring the matters to their notice so that these incidents do not recur."
"We will also take actions from our side," the minister added.
The BSF has been under fire from national and international human-rights organisations for killings and tortures along the Bangladesh border.
According to a Dhaka-based human-rights organisation, over 1,000 Bangladeshis were killed in BSF firing in the last decade and as many were injured.
Faced with continuous protests from Dhaka and human-rights organisations, New Delhi promised to bring down the number of border killings to zero and announced to provide 'non-lethal' weapons to the BSF. However, border killings continue to thrive.
There have been 319 incidents of tortures by the BSF in 2012 while the number was 155 in 2011, according to a statistics published by the ASK on Dec 31.
The report said the Indian border force had killed 48 Bangladeshi nationals, injured 106 other
s and abducted another 140.
The human-rights group said the BSF had added new heights to their menace by hurling hand-bombs, intruding in homes and torturing, injuring by charging bayonets, breaking hands and legs, forcefully undressing people and whipping them, and hacking people to death.
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