Bangladesh had recently summoned the Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka and demanded an explanation on the reported increased border killings by BSF
New Delhi: At a time when soldiers from India and Bangladesh are carrying out the ninth edition of the joint military exercise in the rugged terrains of Meghalaya enhancing the security engagement with each other, Dhaka’s Foreign Minister has expressed serious concerns over increased border killings by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
In his recent statement to media, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen claimed that border killings by Indian forces have increased a lot this year. Momen was responding to a question raised in a presser at his office, wherein he termed the increased border killings as very unfortunate incidents.
“The Bangladeshi government is very much aware of this issue. Whenever such incidents take place, the Indian high commissioner is summoned and asked as to why these incidents are happening?” Momen said while referring to a recent border killing incident, when a Bangladeshi youth was reportedly shot by Indian BSF, near the border district of Lalmonirhaat, on 31 January.
With the inclusion of the latest incident, three Bangladeshis have been allegedly killed by the BSF, in less than one week.
Momen wanted to know that even with an agreement standing between the two nations, preventing the use of lethal weapons on borders, why are such incidents taking place. “New Delhi has always promised Dhaka, that there will not be a single border killing. Even then, the killings are taking place,” the minister marked.
When questioned, whether Bangladesh has raised this issue with India, the Foreign Minister said that his office and always conveyed such unfortunate incidents to his counterparts in New Delhi.
Momen also said that India has different kinds of explanation regarding such killings. He was quoted saying, ‘The Indians say that our people intrude deep inside from their border. They do not kill any person on the border.’
Bangladesh Foreign Ministry had recently summoned the Indian High Commissioner reminding him of the bilateral relations between the two countries over the border killings.
Regarding summoning of the Indian diplomat by Dhaka, Momen said that “We do not want to take credit by saying that, we summoned the Indian High Commissioner. We want a peaceful solution over this issue. We want that not a single individual should be killed. It is very disgraceful.”
The two Asian neighbors – India and Bangladesh – share the world’s fifth-longest border measuring at 4,156 kilometers. According to an online report, in 2019 at least 43 Bangladeshi citizens were killed by the BSF, which accounts for a threefold increase from 14 deaths registered in 2018.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government has continued to raise serious concerns over the border killings with India. Bangladesh’s Minister of Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan, had highlighted these border killings at a Parliamentary session in Dhaka. He had said that the BSF had killed 294 Bangladeshi nationals in the last 10 years, since 2009.
