India Revives its tradition of killing Bengali Muslims by declaring them Bangladeshi immigrants
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True to its anti-Islam and anti-Muslim tradition, India has once
again unleashed a reign of killings and arrest of innocent local
Muslims by declaring them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Dr. K. M. A. Malik
It has been a practice of Indian authorities for many years that they arrest Bengali speaking Indian Muslims at different Indian cities and then try to push-in the hapless people into Bangladesh on the allegation that they are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The arrested persons are invariably Muslims, and never Hindus. If and when the Bangladesh Border Security (BDR) knows about this type of push-in of Indian Muslims into Bangladesh in advance, they take counter measures to prevent such dubious acts by the Indian authorities.
Bangladesh authorities have on many occasions in the past made formal protests and asked the Indian authorities not to continue with this practice, for the sake of preventing misunderstanding and embarrassment between the two neighbours. But the Indian authorities have always turned a deaf ear to the requests of Bangladesh.
Although India's push-in policy towards Bangladesh was a little bit slow during the last 2/3 years, a recent news report published in the daily Nayadiganta on May 25, 2008, suggests that the basic policy has not been changed.
According to the Nayadiganta report, many Muslims from West Bengal and Assam are facing harassment in different cities of other Indian states, for the sole reason of their being Bengali speaking Muslim minorities. This was proved by an incident at the Sialdah railway station in Kolkata on May 24. On that day about 30-35 people were seen handcuffed and kept waiting on a platform in the railway station.
According to Indian police, these people were all arrested at Haridhar on the suspicion of being Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, who would be expelled from India and pushed into Bangladesh.
Closer investigations, however, revealed that these people were all Bengali speaking poor Muslims who went to other parts of India to escape dire poverty in West Bengal. They were all Indian citizens; none of them was from Bangladesh. Nobody ever lived in any part of Bangladesh. But the Indian police arrested them on the allegation that they were all Bangladeshi illegal immigrants and they were brought to
Kolkata for the purpose of deportation to Bangladesh. They did not have any passport or similar documents.
One of the arrested persons, Sheikh Haroon, disclosed to Nayadiganta that he was kept in a jail for eight months before being brought to the station in chains. His home address is at Ranchike under the Bhabanipur police station in the Medinipur district of West Bengal.
He was very scared of being pushed into Bangladesh because he did not have any home there. Another arrested person Abdul Aziz told that he hails from Kusthia Masjid Bari Lane in Kolkata and that he had worked in the Nilratan Hospital. The third person, Monir Husain, claimed that his home is at 3 Anzuman Road in Kolkata-7. One person claimed that his home is at the Naya Basti in the Sadar Bazar area of Barrackpur, Kolkata. Another claimed to have a home in Barrackpur, at a short distance from the local MP Tarit Tarafdar residence.
Thus, despite being genuine residents of West Bengal, these people were arrested, handcuffed and herded like sheep to be ‘pushed’across Bangladesh border. The official reason is that they are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, but the real reason is that they are Muslims and at the same time extremely poor; their poverty has forced them to look for menial jobs in other parts of India. (In West Bengal, 25% Muslim minorities hold only 2% of government jobs; Kolkata University has only 3-4 Muslims in the academic staff list.
This is the situationof the Muslims in the ‘politically most liberal and culturally enlightened state of India). Incidentally, there is no instance of any Bengali speaking Hindu being treated in the same way. Thus, it is evident that poor Muslim religious minorities are easy target for vilification and discrimination by the so-called secular Indian state.
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While the Indian establishment treat their own Muslims (as well as the so-called lower caste Hindus and ethnic minorities) with neglect and as third class citizens, the attitude shown to the citizens of Bangladesh is one of utter contempt.
A glaring example of this can be found in a recent statement of the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka. The High Commissioner, Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, in a TV discussion program in Dhaka on May 16 claimed that the people who are killed in the border areas by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) are mostly cattle thieves and smugglers and they are not innocent as reported in Bangladesh media.
Mr. Chakravarty like his predecessors including Ms Veena Sikri has regular habits of advising Bangladesh what it should or should not do. A few months ago, he suggested in a public meeting that Bangladesh should adopt India-style secularis to fight extremism and terrorism and to establish democracy.
Such utterances from the Indian diplomats in Dhaka are not only unethical but also hollow considering the fact that the extremist and fanatic Hindu BJP has emerged as the most dominant political and social force in India. The whole world knows that BJP rode to political pre-eminence and formed the central government on anti-Muslim, pro-Hindu fanaticism. Only last week the BJP won elections in Karnataka state with handsome majority. This BJP victory was brought about by the party's anti-Muslim stand, as it happened earlier in the neighbouring Gujrat. Thus, with Hindu extremists and fanatics setting the political agenda in India, talk of secularism by the Indian diplomats in Dhaka seems to be an attempt to portray Bangladesh worse than India in abusing religion for political purposes.
Of course, the Indian diplomats are not the only ones to interfere in Bangladesh politics. It is well known that representatives of other powerful countries including the USA, EU and Britain have often issued statements on Bangladesh politics that are openly interventionist in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and unbecoming of diplomatic norms and practices. Bangladesh government has often digested these unsolicited advice, probably not to provoke harsh measures from the powerful countries including the big neighbour.
Mr. Chakravarty' s comments on the border killings are dangerous for several reasons, especially as it does not help, but only makes it more difficult to, improve the relations between the two neighbours.
Bangladesh government may remain silent on such statement, but the people will get an idea that the Indian authorities are hostile and callous when it comes to the lives of Bangladesh nationals.
An editorial in the daily New Age on May 18 makes an excellent comment on the issue. It says, His (Mr. Chakravarty' s) claim is puzzling on the one hand, as it contradicts the reports of local media and the findings of human rights organisations vis-Ã -vis the border shootings over the years and raises some disturbing questions on the other, as it suggests that he and, by implication, his government has tacit support to such extra-judicial killings by the Border Security Force of India.
Killings of Bangladesh nationals by the BSF have been a regular phenomenon on the frontiers. In October 2007, the human rights coalition Odhikar reported that more than 700 people had been killed by the Indian border guards since January 2000. The report was a compilation of media reports on border shootings in the period. In most of the cases, the media reported that the victims were either farmers or shepherds or cattle traders.
While some of the victims were known in their localities as smugglers, it does not justify, in any way, their killing by the BSF. Worryingly, Chakravarty’s statement seems to suggest that, since the victims of border shootings are not innocent and mostly smugglers, their killings are justified. Such a position strikes at the very root of the concept of the rule of law, which is the fundamental principle of democracy.
The rule of law requires that even the vilest of criminals cannot be punished, let alone executed, until and unless he or she is adjudged guilty by a credible court of law after a transparent public trial. The government of India, which boasts of itself as the largest democracy in the world, should know better that if a person is wrongfully punished, the rule of law is put into jeopardy.
While we acknowledge that both Bangladesh and India need to clamp down on smuggling, we believe their anti-smuggling actions should by no means encourage the border guards to assume the role of law enforcers, judges and executioners rolled into one. New Age has consistently deplored extra-judicial killings, wherever they take place, at home or abroad, and is, therefore, naturally concerned at the assertion of the Indian high commissioner, especially because of its underlying support for extra-judicial killings.
We would like to believe that Chakravarty' s comment is not representative of the official position of the Indian government and that the Indian government does not condone, let alone authorise, extra-judicial killings by the BSF. On the contrary, if the statement is indeed indicative of the mindset of the ruling coterie in New Delhi, it is bad news not only for the people of India but also for the people of the countries bordering India.
Finally, it is sad for Bangladeshi people that those who rule the country and a section of the middle class do not find enough courage to criticize Indian policies, even when these are extremely unjust and unfair towards Muslims and Bangladesh. The print and electronic media in Dhaka also are mostly dominated by pro-Indian and anti-Muslim elements. In such a situation, New Age has done an excellent job by exposing the false pretences of the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka.
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The writer is an academician and may be contacted by e-mail:
kmamalik@aol. com
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NFB Note : Report By Odhikar- a Leading Hunan Rights Org in
Bangladesh, report on human rights violations in the Indo-Bangladesh
border
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and Indian miscreants kill 461
Bangladeshis in 6 years . Read full Documents below
Link :
http://www.wfda. net/UserFiles/ File/Press% 20Release-
border-2006% 20Eng.doc.
http://newsfrombang ladesh.net/ view.php? hidRecord= 202255
Note: Thanks to Jana for originally posted the article.