According to a human rights watchdog, at least 25 Bangladeshi civilians were killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in the first half of 2020.
On Monday, a Bangladesh-based human rights group called Odhikar released a report stating that the BSF killed 45, injured 17, and abducted 3 Bangladeshi citizens between January and June 2020.
The report also said: “During this period, a BSF member entered Bangladesh and shot dead an SSC (secondary school certificate) examinee engaged in agricultural work.
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According to local Bangladeshi media reports the secondary school certificate examinee, Shimon Roy aged 16, was shot dead on April 19 in the northern border district of Thakurgaon.
Director operations of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Lieutenant Colonel Fayezur Rahman, told Anadolu Agency, “Our field-level officers and high-level officials at the headquarters have sent several protest letters against those killings.”
The Indian border forces follow the controversial “shoot-on-sight” policy along the 4,096km (2,545 miles) India- Bangladesh border in order to prevent cattle smuggling and illegal crossing.
SS Guleria, a high-ranking BSF official at the South Bengal Frontier headquarters in India, responded to Odhikar’s report saying, “Transborder crimes are at an all-time high here. Mostly, they (Bangladeshis) come to procure Phensydl, a cough syrup used as a drug by youngsters. Bangladesh has banned the syrup, and thus this youth tries to procure it from India.”
SS Guleria also said that the BSF returned at least 6,000 to 8,000 Bangladeshi people last year.
“Only criminals and those who attack our men are killed. At least nine BSF personnel have been injured by these notorious illegal infiltrators this year. Last year, we lost three BSF members, while 45 got injured. The criminals died as an act of self-defence by our BSF personnel … to prevent infiltration and smuggling, youth try to cross the border to supply or procure drugs,” he further added.