BSF kills another Bangladeshi amid zero killing talks

India's Border Security Force shot dead a Bangladeshi citizen along the border in Mymensingh Tuesday night while the director general of the force was participating in a conference with their Bangladeshi counterparts where the top agenda was to stop border killings.

Khairul Islam, 40, the man who was killed, was a cattle trader of Gubrakura village in Haluaghat, Mymensingh, reports our correspondent in the district.

Khairul was shot in Gubrakura area along the border by BSF personnel patrolling near the international border pillar 1124 around 8:30pm, according to police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) officers.

Family members and locals took Khairul to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead.

The body was sent to the morgue for autopsy, said Md Mahmudul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Haluaghat Police Station.

The incident might have happened when the man was attempting to go across the border, said Lt Col Tauhid Mahmud, commanding officer of BGB Battalion-39.

The BGB is looking into the matter, he added.

At least 48 Bangladeshi citizens have been killed along the Indo-Bangla border this year, according to Rights Body Ain o Salish Kendra.

At least 15 people were killed in 2018 while the number rose to 43 last year, it said.

The five-day director general-level conference between the BGB and BSF started in India's Guwahati on Tuesday.

Killing of Bangladeshis by BSF, smuggling of drugs and illegal arms into the country from India, illegal trespassing by Indian nationals including BSF members, and sharing of intelligence between the two forces are among the key issues being discussed at the conference.

BGB DG Maj Gen Shafeenul Islam is leading the 11-memebr Bangladeshi team while BSF DG Rakesh Asthana is heading the BSF team.

The last BGB-BSF DG-level conference was held on September 19 in Dhaka where the BSF DG said they are working out a strategy to bring the killings at the India-Bangladesh border areas down to zero.