HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INDIA ON TRIGGER HAPPY BSF

Indian border security force (BSF) had become famous for 'killing one Bangladeshi every five days' on the charges of alleged intrusion into Indian territory including no-mans land. Now human rights watch India reports that BSF personnel did not spare their own countrymen as they had injured and killed villagers of Muradpur, West Bengal, India.

According to the fact-finding team from MASUM, on 20 November 2005, like other days, the BSF personnel at the Muradpur border were allowing these villagers to smuggle food articles (namely, wheat, rice, pulses etc) across the border after taking money from them. However, it is alleged that they saw these villagers also trying to take a few cows across the border, for which they had not been bribed. This angered the BSF who then opened fire killing and injuring these villagers. The fact-finding team alleges that the BSF fired 13 rounds of ammunition.

The firing took place about seven to eight kilometers away from the border and if the BSF were concerned about security issues, they could have easily apprehended the villagers. Instead they chose to resort to firing.

According to another news:

The Bangladesh border guards never opened a single round of fire on any Indian civilian or killed anyone. The BSF troops have been killing the innocent Bangladeshis like birds and animals without any provocation violating human rights and all agreed international norms and rules. No BSF man has so far been punished by their authorities for such illegal killings.

I tried to search the reasons of these killings which often cause strives between Bangladesh and India. The root of the problem is the smuggling of cattle from India to Bangladesh, which is valued approximately at Indian Rupees 1000 crore per annum (approx 2% of Bangladesh budget). Another problem is the illegal trade of cough syrup (Phensidyl), which is banned in Bangladesh because of its misuse as a narcotic. More than 3,000 of illegal drug factories were set up at bordering Indian villages and semi-urban areas along the India Bangladesh border to supply the highly demanded syrup to Bangladesh.

So it is high time that India should legalize the cattle export and stop the illegal trade of cough syrups to stop these human rights abuses by BSF to Indians and Bangladeshis alike.