Border killings must stop
Recently, the Border Security Force (BSF) of India killed four Bangladeshis in the border areas of Dinajpur, Kurigram and Meherpur districts. These incidents occurred just after a conference was held between deputy director general-level BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Shillong. At that conference, BSF again assured Bangladesh of stopping border killings.
Surprisingly, Dhaka has been raising this issue over and over again in every bilateral meeting and the Indian side has been assuring Bangladesh repeatedly of taking steps in this regard. But in reality the killing continues unabated. We remember that during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Dhaka visit in September last year, a joint statement made by Bangladesh and India, expressed confidence that the Coordinated Border Management Plan would enhance cooperation between the border guards of the two neighbours and stop 'loss of lives in the border areas.' But unfortunately, BSF turned a deaf ear to this joint statement, too.
However, we urge our government to go all-out to persuade the Indian government of to take effective measures to stop border killings.
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