Dhaka will voice its concerns over the verdict of the Felani killing trial, as well as the deployment of surveillance drones along the Indo-Bangladesh border, in the upcoming meeting of top commanders of the border guard forces of India and Bangladesh.
A 24-member delegation led by Border Security Force (BSF) Chief Subhash Joshi will visit Dhaka for five days of director general-level talks beginning on September 14.
The 19-member Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) delegation will be led by its Director General Major General Aziz Ahmed.
A high-ranking source at the BGB said at the meeting they would attach the highest of priority to border killings and drug smuggling, both of which have been rampant since the last DG-level meeting in New Delhi in March.
Regarding the Felani killing, he said: “We have informally expressed our concern to the BSF after the special court in West Bengal on Friday exempted the lone accused BSF member Amiya Ghosh from the charge of killing Bangladeshi girl Felani.”
“We hope the issue will be raised formally in the meeting,” the official said.
On January 7, 2011, 15-year-old Felani was shot dead by BSF men when she, along with her father Nurul Islam, was scaling the barbed wire fence at the Anantapur border point in the Phulbari upazila of Kurigram.
“We will try to establish a mutual understanding so that we can put an end to the killing and drug smuggling,” he said, adding that this time Dhaka would once again hand over a list of factories on the Indian border which produce Phensedyl and smuggle it into Bangladesh.
In response to an Indian media report which said BSF will deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – popularly known as drones- along the border with Bangladesh, the BGB official said: “Our foreign ministry sought clarification from Delhi on the issue.
The Indian media said the BSF chief later said they don’t have such a plan. So, this issue can be discussed informally, I think.”
“No border-related issues reported in both Indian and Bangladeshi media will be left unattended,” said BGB Director General Major General Aziz Ahmed over the phone on Thursday.
The flag meeting between the BGB and Indian BSF will continue till September 19 at the BGB Pilkhana headquarters, he said.
The issue of illegal migration of Rohingyas is also expected to be brought to the table, the official said.
According to rights watchdog Ain o Salish Kendra, BSF killed 13 Bangladeshi citizens between January and June of this year.
Among them, 11 were shot to death and two were tortured to death. 59 people sustained injuries by the BSF soldiers, they said.
Another rights organisation, Odhikar, reported that BSF had been killing Bangladeshis in the last four months by stoning, stabbing, striking with rifle butts or running them over with speed boats.
BGB statistics show that the BSF killed 214 Bangladeshis and wounded 323 others between January 2009 and June 2013.
