Bangladesh-India has a border of 4,096 km, which is the 5th longest border in the world. It divides the 6 divisions of Bangladesh and the Indian states of Assam, West Bengal, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. This border has now become a subject of many problems. Such as smuggling, illegal immigration, cross-border terrorism and human rights violations etc. Bangladesh-India border is one of the most dangerous borders in the world today. Killing of Bangladeshi nationals by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on this border has become a common occurrence. After a few days, the news of such killings on the border was circulated in various media. 6 countries share land borders with India. These are China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. BSF is deployed on the borders of each of the above countries. Most of the people in the villages along the Bangladesh-India border are living below the poverty line. They carry the goods of the smugglers of the two countries in the hope of two handfuls of rice as laborers on their stomachs. The border areas of the two countries are densely populated. Many people in both countries have lost their farms and livelihood due to river erosion. They earn their livelihood by smuggling cattle and goods across both borders. In many cases, many are captured and tortured or killed on suspicion of involvement in smuggling. Children are also used to smuggle goods. Because they are less likely to be caught. They were also killed at the border.

The killing of Felani Khatun on January 7, 2011 was a barbaric incident. Noor Islam lived with his family in Colonitari village of Ramkhana union of Kurigram's Nageshwari upazila in New Delhi, India. Daughter Felani got married in Bangladesh. Felani, who works as a domestic worker in New Delhi, was crossing the barbed wire fence along with her father to enter Bangladesh from India through the Anantapur border in Kurigram to get married that day. Although the father was able to cross, daughter Felani's clothes got caught in the barbed wire of the border. Panicked, she started screaming. In this situation, a BSF soldier named Amiya Ghosh shot and killed Felani like a bird hunter. His lifeless body was hung upside down on barbed wire for about 5 hours in medieval style. Felani's killing sparked outrage in some quarters in Bangladesh and India. Photos of Felani's hanging body were widely circulated in the international media. Far from taking any action against the culprits involved in the murder, India has also ignored the directives given by the National Human Rights Commission of India to compensate Felani's family. The BSF member admitted his involvement in Felani's murder but was acquitted by an Indian court. After that, the case went to the Supreme Court of India and it has not been resolved even today. Recently, two teenagers of Bangladesh were killed by BSF firing on the border. On the night of 01.09.2024, a teenager, Swarna Das, was shot dead by the Indian Border Guards in the Kulaura border area of ​​Moulvibazar while visiting her brother living in Tripura, India with her mother. Swarna Das and her mother Sanchita Rani Das tried to cross the border to India with the help of two local brokers to see their brother. Exactly 8 days after this incident, on 09.09.2024, a teenager named Jayant Kumar Singh was killed by the Indian border guards at Baliadangi border in Thakurgaon. Jayant Kumar Singh is the son of Mahadev Kumar Singh, a resident of Fakirvita Belpukur village of Baliadangi upazila. When a group of people tried to go to India with the help of a local broker, this tragic incident took place late at night in the Dhantala border area of ​​the upazila. There are many similar neighborhoods on the border of the two countries, where people try to cross the border in search of livelihood apart from meeting their relatives. Shooting someone on sight is a grave violation of human rights. Instead of doing so, the offender should be arrested and prosecuted according to the laws of both countries. The current foreign advisor of Bangladesh Touhid Hossain mentioned that the border killing is an obstacle to the good relations between the two countries (Bangladesh-India).

Although Bangladesh and India claim to be mutual friends, the regular shooting of Bangladeshi citizens by India cannot be found anywhere else in the world except the Bangladesh-India border. According to the agreement between Bangladesh and India, if a citizen of one country tries to enter another country illegally, then the border guard forces of the respective country can take any kind of action to defend themselves, but it is advisable not to use firearms. According to international law, if the BSF perceives any activity on the border as threatening, they can fire as a last resort in self-defence. But it is incomprehensible how an unarmed girl Felani Khatun with her clothes caught in barbed wire or a girl crossing the border holding her mother's hand Swarna Das can pose a threat to armed BSF. According to survivors and eyewitness accounts, the BSF opened fire indiscriminately without trying to arrest or warn them while infiltrating the border. The BSF also claimed that the miscreants opened fire when they tried to evade arrest. However, the use of lethal weapons on suspicion of a crime is not justified. One thing is clear based on information from various reports that the victims of border killings as criminals are either unarmed or have sickles, sticks or knives with them. In none of the cases investigated, the BSF could prove that lethal weapons or explosives were recovered from the murder victims; which may put them at risk of death or serious injury.

So the view of BSF firing on the border is a violation of human right to life under national and international law. Which applies to both Bangladesh and India. As a neighboring country, India will treat cross-border travelers in accordance with national and international laws. The Government of India should ensure that the Border Guard Force respects fundamental human rights and follows the rule of law. The main reason behind the killing of Bangladeshi citizens on the border is excessive use of force by the BSF. The incidents of killings by BSF on the Bangladesh-India border have caused quite a lot of concern. In a flag meeting between the two countries, the BSF promised no further firing on the border to bring down the border killings to zero. But that promise is no longer kept. Far from justice for these murders, the Indian government has not even expressed any concern. So the promise of reducing border killings to zero hangs in the balance. Even in September 2022, a Bangladeshi teenager was killed by BSF firing on the Dinajpur border a few hours after the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and India announced in a joint statement that border killings would be reduced to zero. Then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was staying in India. International law does not allow any force to shoot unarmed civilians anywhere in the world. According to statistics from the Center for Law and Arbitration, around 610 Bangladeshis were killed in BSF firing and torture from 2009 to September 2024. Bangladesh should complain to India in writing about the border killings and seek its response. If that doesn't solve it either; Then Bangladesh can approach the international court. Bangladesh government should take measures to stop border killings through domestic and internationally recognized laws. The international border killing law has not been resolved as the Bangladesh government has not implemented it. Although the Indian BSF has been carrying out serial killings on the border of Bangladesh, no protest has been given by the previous government of Bangladesh. On the one hand, the Hasina government has unilaterally provided various facilities to India, including business in the transit, port, power and energy sectors, on the other hand, India has not even given Bangladesh its fair share of transboundary river water and is killing Bangladeshi citizens one after another with barbed wire fences along the border.

On 13.09.2024, a meeting was held on the occasion of a courtesy call at the level of Commanders of Indian Border Guard Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) at Banglabandha border in Bangladesh. In this, the BSF expressed regret for the untoward incident at the border and assured the BGB delegation that they will not fire on any Bangladeshi nationals at the border in future. Such killings on the border seem to be an expression of India's non-neighbourly, unfriendly and hegemonic attitude towards Bangladesh. This is a clear sign of Bangladesh's knee-jerk foreign policy towards India. These border killings by BSF can inflame the anti-India sentiment of the people of Bangladesh as a whole. The killing of Bangladeshis by BSF on the border will never stop on India's promise. For this we have to protest strongly. On March 9, 2017, a young man named Govinda Gautam was killed by Indian Border Guards on the India-Nepal border. This led to an increase in anti-India sentiments and a tense situation among the people of Nepal. The then Security Adviser of India expressed his grief over the incident to the Prime Minister of Nepal and condoled with the victim's family and granted Govinda Gautam statehood. Again, India did not dare to shoot and kill a single Pakistani citizen on the India-Pakistan border. But the BSF is brutally shooting and killing innocent people on the Bangladesh-India border after a few days. So now is the right time to give a befitting reply to the shooting and killing of innocent Bangladeshi people by the BSF on the Bangladesh-India border, otherwise the ongoing killings will continue. Lack of political will in India is one of the reasons why the killings on the Bangladesh-India border have not stopped. Although India is one of Bangladesh's neighboring friendly countries only on paper, we do not see its reflection in reality. India helped Bangladesh in various ways in our great liberation war, but India's interests were hidden behind it. We know that long-standing hostile relations between India and Pakistan continued. There is no reasonable reason to think that India has so far done anything selflessly for the benefit of the people of Bangladesh. If India had extended its hand of cooperation with Bangladesh in a friendly spirit, it would not have shot and killed innocent people on the border. So there is room for doubt to evaluate India not as a neighbor, but as a friend.

Dr. Md. Moniruzzaman : Associate Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur