Formulate specific policy to stop border killings: ASK

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) today opined that the continuation of border killings, torture and harassment are contradictory to international law and human rights.

The rights body came up with the observation when a five-day long director general level conference between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) is going on in Dhaka.

ASK said that there should be specific policy, and state-level administrative commitments regarding the use of lethal and non-lethal weapons in the borders to stop recurrence of border killings.

The conference formally began today and will end on April 27.

A ten-member Indian delegation led by BSF Director General Shri KK Sharma and a fifteen-member delegation of its Bangladesh counterpart led by Maj Gen Md Safinul Islam have taken part in the conference.

The issues like border killings of unarmed Bangladeshi citizens, abduction or detention, illegal trespassing, smuggling of arms, explosives and drugs are among other issues will be discussed in the conference, said a release of ASK quoting BGB sources.

According to a survey of ASK, 161 Bangladeshi nationals have been killed in BSF shooting in the last five years. Of them, 27 Bangladeshi nationals were killed in 2013 while 33 in 2014, 46 in 2015, 31 in 2016 and 24 in 2017.

A total of 294 Bangladeshi citizens were tortured and another 408 were abducted in border areas, as per the ASK statistics.