Indian authorities need to take appropriate steps to ensure justice for the killing of Felani, the national human rights body and home minister said separately on Saturday.
Criticising the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) court’s verdict in the Felani Khatun shooting case, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Mizanur Rahman said the judgment shows disrespect to international law.
A special court formed by India’s BSF on Thursday acquitted BSF constable Amiya Ghosh of the charge of killing 15 year old Bangladeshi girl Felani at the Cooch Behar frontier.
“The judgment has made a mockery of justice. It has not only cheated the family of Felani but also the whole nation,” Mizanur Rahman told reporters after attending a discussion meeting at the Liberation War Museum on Saturday.
After labelling the verdict as being disrespectful to international law, the NHRC chief said that India should take the next step to ensure justice.
He suggested that the foreign ministry should take up the issue with the Indian government and convey the sentiments of their neighbour so that an appeal can be lodged in India challenging the verdict.
“We would contact the Indian Human Rights Commission and request that it participate in the process of appeal,” the national rights body chair said.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed, at a function in the capital on Saturday, said aggrieved persons should appeal to the appropriate authorities if they consider that a judgment has not been fair.
Killings on the frontiers are in no way acceptable and both countries should work together to stop border killings, he said.
“We expected justice, but it has not been reflected in the judgement of the Felani killing case,” Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said while talking to journalists after laying a foundation stone at the Nageshwari thana building in Kurigram on Saturday.
He said the killing of Felani is a shameful and tragic incident for both Bangladesh and India.
A five-man BSF General Security Forces court headed by DIG (Communication) SP Trivedi conducted the hearings from August 13 at Sonari BSF camp, near the North Bengal town of Cooch Behar.
BSF’s 181 Battalion constable Amiya Ghosh, the prime accused in the case, could not be found guilty due to ‘inconclusive and insufficient’ evidence against him, the court found.
BSF officials said the verdict was given Thursday night and the proceedings of the GSF court were forwarded to the Director General for final approval.
Felani was shot dead by BSF while she was trying to climb over the barbed wire fence along the Anantapur border point in Kurigram on January 7, 2011. She was on her way home to Bangladesh from India.
When her clothes became entangled in the barbed wire, the BSF fired at her. A photo showing Felani hanging from the fencing was widely circulated by the media, sparking protests and prompting Indian rights groups to demand justice. Amidst protest and criticism, BSF enquired into the incident and found one of its members to be involved. That member was acquitted in Thursday’s judgement.
In response to media reports on the judgement, the spokesperson for the High Commission of India in Dhaka said the trial by a BSF Court of Inquiry was the first step in a quasi-judicial process.
The due process of law, which has provisions for appeal and review by the competent authority, will be followed, they said.
Justice will be delivered to those who are found guilty, they added.
