Cross-border atrocities
Photo: AFP
Bangladesh achieved independence with the help and assistance of India in 1971. India sheltered and fed millions of our people during the nine months' War of Independence. The war began against the background of a massacre of the unarmed Bengali civilian population unheard of in history. Unfortunately, the victims of the carnage were but the citizens of a state (the then Pakistan) whose integrity the murderous army was supposed to protect. The generosity extended to the millions of homeless, helpless people from across the border perhaps exceeded all previous records. Without India's assistance, the reality would have been different; Bangladesh would not have emerged as an independent country. Now contrast that to the latter-day scenario. Since independence, countless numbers of Bangladeshis were raped, mutilated and killed by the Border Security Force of the neighbouring giant. The memory of the Felani incident, I guess, is still vivid in the mind of the people. The most recent incident of torture inflicted upon a Bangladeshi cattle trader as shown by the electronic media is horrific and is in no way less deplorable than the tortures inflicted upon the captives of the infamous Abu Garib Prison.
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