Border killings
Bangladesh and India are two friendly countries and that should remain so for the sake of both the countries since therein lies the well being of both the neighbours. It is very unfortunate that people should die from firing by border forces of either of the countries for any reason whatsoever. Generally, it is the Indian BSF that is reported to kill alleged smugglers, though Bangladesh asserts that those killed are innocent villagers from the bordering territories of Bangladesh. India should look into the matter more seriously and in no way strengthen the hands of anti Indian forces within Bangladesh by allowing these unnecessary killings.
If for the sake of argument, we accept that Indian forces, in fact, kill trespassers that are smugglers, we should examine what India gains from these killings. Nothing, rather it embarrasses a friendly government and a huge number of friendly people of Bangladesh. If smugglers trespass from Bangladesh, so naturally smugglers trespass into Bangladesh too. However, seldom have we heard of BDR killing Indians. It has been an itching point in the good neighbourly relationship for long. This must stop and as the mightier country the responsibility falls more on India than Bangladesh. Does the BSF show any conclusive evidence that they are not killing innocent people who happen to cross borders for various reasons? It should not be forgotten that the artificial border that were drawn at the time of partition of India left numerous houses divided between the two regions and in many cases people even find the nearest bazaars in the other country. Sometimes their agricultural land falls in the other country. Grazing cattle crosses the border into the other country and this is very natural. And then killing a few smugglers, if smugglers are killed, why strain a good relationship? Measures should be taken to stop smuggling but not by killings.
I remember, once while on a field tour, I went to check the work of fieldworkers who were supposed to paste posters during a mass awareness campaign to raise the status of green leafy vegetables, I found a whole village pasted with the campaign posters in India. Thankfully, we did not face any BSF then. Workers from outside the area did not realize that they were in India. Later, the civil surgeon and his staff alerted us to the fact. I immediately instructed the campaign staff to take along local staffs while campaigning in a border area. Since we claim to be friendly countries, there cannot be any need of guns and any dispute can be settled through negotiations; otherwise, where is the benefit of being friendly?
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