Prothom Alo, Apr 24, 2018 at 23:35 hrs
Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK), a national rights body, on Tuesday said that keeping the issue of border killing in India-Bangladesh border talks agenda are not enough, reports UNB.
Rather, ASK said, there should be specific promises, policy and effective state-level administrative decision over the use of lethal and non-lethal arms in the border for stopping recurrence of the border killings, torture and harassment.
The ASK has given its observation hours after director general-level border talks between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) formally began at BGB Pilkhana headquarters in the capital in the morning.
The ASK in its media release said non-stopping of killings, torture and harassment in bordering areas are unexpected and condemnable as well as such incidents go counter to human rights and international laws.
BGB DG major general Md Shafeenul Islam is leading the 15-member Bangladesh delegation while his counterpart BSF director general KK Sharma leads a 10-member Indian delegation in the border talks.
The formal talks will end on Thursday following signing of a Joint Record of Discussion.
According to the statistics of the ASK, a total of 161 Bangladeshi nationals were killed in shooting allegedly by Indian BSF in the last five years. Of them, 27 Bangladeshi nationals were killed in 2013, 33 in 2014, 46 in 2015, 31 in 2016 and 24 in 2017. On the other hand, 294 Bangladeshi nationals were tortured physically, while 408 others were abducted in the bordering areas during the period.
Besides, three Bangladeshis died due to tortures allegedly by BSF in the frontiers in last three months till 31 March this year, the ASK said adding that seven more were tortured and three others were abducted during the first quarters of the current year.http://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/news/174621/ASK-for-specific-policy-to-stop-border-killings
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