Bangladesh protests as national killed by Indian border forces

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) conveyed a protest Saturday to its Indian counterpart for the killing of a Bangladeshi national in the northern border district of Panchagarh.

The victim was killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) at the Bhitargarh border in Panchagarh Sadar town in the district early Saturday, according to officials.

The BGB held a meeting with the BSF and protested the killing as there is bilateral consensus of not using lethal weapons on the border, BGB officials confirmed to Anadolu, citing Sheikh Mohammad Badruddoja, commander of the 56th BGB Battalion of Nilphamari.

The victim was identified as Al Amin, 38. The shooting took place 160 yards (489 feet) from the border pillar in India.

“When contacted, the BSF Commandant said that approximately 15-20 smugglers from both countries were smuggling cattle from India to Bangladesh. The smuggler and the BSF member got into a fight and at one stage the smuggler hit the BSF member with a knife. In such a situation, the BSF fired two rounds in self-defense. And, a Bangladeshi citizen was killed in the said fire,” according to a BGB statement.

BGB protested and said that “whatever the situation, the BSF has violated human rights through border killings, which is unexpected and unacceptable in any way.”

“A strong protest letter has been sent to the battalion commander level in this regard,” it added.

The BSF, however, assured the BGB that such incidents would not happen in the future, it said.

A total of three Bangladeshis have been killed this month.

The body of the latest victim will be handed over to his family after the legal process is followed through by the police of both countries.

The neighboring countries share a 4,096-kilometer (2,545-mile) border, one of the longest land borders in the world. India fenced 3,271 kilometers (2,032 miles) of the border area.

According to Ain-o-Salish Kendra, a local human rights organization, 25 Bangladeshis were shot dead by BSF in 2024. Another group, Odhikar, reported that between 2000 and 2020, 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in BSF-related shootings along the border.

Bangladesh and India have been witnessing an exchange of words, including border tensions since a changeover in power last August when a popular uprising forced the now-former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India. Hasina was treated as a close ally of India.

Bangladesh also summoned the Indian envoy in Dhaka several times since January because of border killings and the construction of barbed wire fencing that was installed last month.