[🇧🇩-Land] Atrocities of BSF/How BGB responds

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A procession carrying a symbolic dead body on shoulders was held in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat, demanding an end to border killings.

The procession, led by Md Hanif, better known as Hanif Bangladeshi for his protests against border killings, paraded the main road of the upazila town, starting from the Upazila Parishad intersection around 10 am.

Expressing solidarity with Hanif Bangladeshi, Sadiqul Islam and Nurunbi Mia of Nageshwari upazila of Kurigram, NU Ahmed of Ishwarganj upazila of Mymensingh, Sourav Hossain Belal of Kathalia upazila of Jhalakathi and Arif Hossain of Begumganj upazila of Noakhali participated in the procession.

Addressing a rally followed by the procession, Hanif Bangladeshi alleged that neighbouring countries India and Myanmar have been committing acts of aggression against Bangladesh.

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has gunned down many Bangladeshis along the border, he said, while Myanmar sent 1.2 million Rohingyas to Bangladesh after torturing them and two Bangladeshis have been killed by Myanmar mortar shells recently.

Questioning why the smugglers are killed and not caught and brought to justice, Hanif Bangladeshi also alleged that the countries pass off Bangladeshis as cattle smugglers after killing them along the border.

On February 17, the first procession with a symbolic dead body on shoulders was held in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar. Later, it was announced that such a procession would be held at bordering districts and upazilas across the country.​

20 Bangladeshis killed by BSF in 7 months


54th BGB-BSF DG-level talks start in Dhaka today
Muktadir Rashid | Published: 00:00, Mar 05,2024

At least 20 Bangladeshi nationals, including a member of the Border Guard Bangladesh, have been killed in the firing of the Indian Border Security Force since June 2023, when border force top leadership from both the countries sat in Delhi and discussed how to lower the number of civilian killings on and along the border.

Eighteen Bangladeshis were killed with 17 others injured and two others drowned between July and December 2023, while two others were killed in January, according to a tally prepared by rights group Ain O Salish Kendra.
Separate Bangladesh officials on Monday told New Age that they once again tabled border killings top on their discussion at the director general-level talks scheduled to begin today (Tuesday).

Newly appointed BGB director general Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui will lead the Bangladesh delegation.

Neither he nor his officials made any comment on the event but a senior official who is closely involved with the setting of agenda said that apart from border killings, a number of other border issues would be discussed in the biannual Dhaka meet.

A delegation led by Border Security Force director general Nitin Agrawal was slated to reach Dhaka today (Tuesday) to discuss issues related to curbing a variety of cross-frontier crimes and measures to create better coordination between the two countries’ security forces and agencies, Press Trust of India reports.

BSF South Bengal officials declined to comment on the agenda.

The DG-level border talks were held annually between 1975 and 1992, from 1993 the talks were bi-annual, alternately held in the national capitals New Delhi and Dhaka. The 53rd round was held in Delhi in June 2023, while this would be the 54th edition of the talks.

Bangladesh shares a 4,156-kilometre land border with five Indian states.

On January 22, the Indian BSF shot dead BGB member Mohammad Roisudddin along the Benapole border in Jashore in the early hours. Roisudddin was posted to the 49th Border Guard Battalion in the district.

Kirity Roy, the founder secretary of India’s Hoogly-based Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha, told New Age that they do not want to see any border killings.

Calling the border killings a ‘blatant violation of international laws,’ former National Human Rights Commission chairman Mizanur Rahman said that such killings of Bangladeshi people are affecting people-to-people relations in both countries.

Rights group ASK documented that 30 Bangladeshis were killed at the hands of the Indian BSF alone in 2023, while the number was 23, including 16 shooting deaths in 2022. In 2021, the number of shooting deaths was 16, and another was reportedly tortured to death. The rights group recorded 42 shooting deaths in 2020.


Border killings dropped slightly in 2021 after the then BSF chief, Rakesh Asthana, in a joint press conference following the 50th border conference concluded in Dhaka in September 2020, promised to bring the number of such killings to zero.

At least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in the shooting by the Indian border force between 2000 and 2020, according to rights group Odhikar.

Later in September 2022, both countries once again agreed to work towards bringing the number of ‘deaths due to incidents’ down to zero along the border during a bilateral meeting between Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.​

Muktadir Rashid | Published: 23:50, Mar 06,2024



Asaduzzaman Khan. — file photo

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Wednesday urged a visiting Indian Border Security Force delegation to bring civilian killings on the India-Bangladesh border to zero and use non-lethal weapons to this end.

The home minister made the call when BSF’s recently-appointed director general, Nitin Agrawal, and his delegation met him at the home ministry as part of the ongoing 54th director general-level talks between the Indian border force and the Border Guard Bangladesh in Dhaka.

A number of BGB commanders, including its newly appointed director general, Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, were present at the 40-minute meeting.

‘We have solved most of the disputes through bilateral discussion, but a few small issues are pending…we want those to be solved too,’ the home minister told New Age after the meeting.

He said that they had urged the BSF delegation to bring the border killings to zero and advised them to use non-lethal weapons.

One of the officials who attended the meeting said that the BSF side, in reply, claimed that they had already replaced lethal weapons on the Bangladesh border.

Bangladesh also sought Indian cooperation to resolve the demarcation dispute in the Mahuri and Kusiyara rivers running through the international border.

Bangladesh officials said that India continued to hang up on the disputes about settling the boundary along the midstream of the Muhuri River despite repeated requests from Bangladesh.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina last raised the matter with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during a meeting on October 5, 2019, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi during her official visit to India.

The disputes on Muhurir Char came up after surveyors from both sides attempted to set the midstream border of the Muhuri River.

The attempt was made after a protocol was signed by the two countries on settling the entire land boundary and subsequent ratification of the instruments by the two countries in September 2011 during Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s term.

Another official said that Wednesday’s call on also put a focus on sharing real-time intelligence and mutual cooperation.

The Bangladesh side also sought cooperation so that no development work along the border in Jashore, Khagrachari, and Sylhet was obstructed by the Indian border force within 150 yards of the international boundary.

The talks will conclude on March 9 with the signing of a joint record of discussions.

Such a meeting takes place twice a year, and every time the Indian forces promise to bring the border killing zero.

But the promise was never kept.

At least 20 Bangladeshi nationals, including a member of the Border Guard Bangladesh, have been killed in the firing of the Indian BSF since June 2023, according to a rights group.​

BSF renews promise to lower border killings
BSF chief assures reopening Rahimpur canal
Muktadir Rashid | Published: 12:13, Mar 09,2024 | Updated: 00:31, Mar 10,2024



The Indian Border Security Force in the latest director general-level meeting with the Bangladeshi border force has renewed its promise to bring down the number of shooting deaths or injuring Bangladeshi civilians along their shared border to zero.

In the 54th director general-level border conference, Border Guard Bangladesh director general Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui urged his Indian counterpart to adopt ‘necessary measures’ to reduce the border killings to zero considering the ‘sound bilateral relation’ existing between the two neighbours.


The biyearly conference between the two border forces held in Dhaka city commenced on March 5 to conclude on Saturday with the signing of the joint record of discussion.

In the joint statement, both sides agreed on bringing down the killing or injuring of unarmed Bangladeshi nationals to zero by enhancing joint patrols, vigilance, intensifying public awareness programme to uphold the spirit of a joint statement made by the prime ministers of both the countries in September 2022.


Such a meeting takes place twice a year in each of which the Indian forces have promised to bring down the border killings to zero.


But the promise was never kept, according to rights activists.

At least 20 Bangladeshi nationals, including a BGB member, have been killed in the firing of the Indian BSF since June 2023, according to rights group Ain O Salish Kendra.

Rights group ASK documented that 30 Bangladeshis were killed at the hands of the Indian BSF in 2023 alone, while the number was 23, including 16 shooting deaths, in 2022.

In 2021, the number of shooting deaths was 16, and another was reportedly tortured to death. The rights group recorded 42 shooting deaths in 2020.

At least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in the shooting by the Indian border force between 2000 and 2020, according to another rights group Odhikar.

In the joint press meet, the BSF chief, Nitin Agrawal, an Indian Police Service officer of the 1989 Kerala cadre, claimed that the civilian deaths were the results of self-defence and termed the civilians killed along the borders ‘criminals’, but the BGB chief termed the civilians killed along the borders ‘miscreants’ and expected no such killings to take place.

When asked why the BSF members do not use body-worn cameras or launch joint inquiries over the scores border killings, the BSF chief did not give any direct reply, but said that they have changed their weapon policy for using pump-action guns on Bangladesh border to bring casualties down.

Replying to another question on killing patterns that repeatedly show that Bangladeshi nationals received bullets on sensitive parts or upper portion of their body, the BSF chief said that although their personnel used non-lethal weapons but some ‘criminals’ with sharp weapons reached so close that the personnel had to act in self-defence.

With a force of over 2.65 lakh personnel, the BSF is India’s leading security agency responsible for safeguarding its 4,100-kilometre-long international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Asked about similar killing of BGB sepoy Mohammad Roisuddin on the border, Nitin Agrawal declined to offer details, but said that they have shared information with their Bangladeshi counterpart.

The BGB chief at this question added that the death of Mohammad Roisuddin was not a ‘targeted killing’.


‘The incident occurred in darkness as a result of confusion on both sides,’ he said, noting that both parties have agreed on a collective effort to prevent any loss of life among uniformed personnel, be it BSF or BGB, as well as among civilian Bangladeshi or Indian nationals.

According to the joint press release, BSF chief expressed his sincere condolences for the sad demise of Roisuddin in the ‘unfortunate incident’.

Roisuddin succumbed to injuries sustained from being shot by the Indian BSF along the Dhanyokhola-Jelepara border in Jashore’s Benapole upazila on January 22.

Both sides agreed to sensitise the border populace to refrain from illegal crossing, smuggling, human trafficking, uprooting border pillars and other trans-border crimes.

The BSF chief, when urged by the BGB chief, assured of an expeditious execution in re-opening the remaining portion of the Rahimpur Khal, linked with the Kusiyara River, to facilitate irrigation.

The BSF chief also responded positively when the BGB director general requested him to pursue with the appropriate Indian authorities regarding the laying of the optical fibre network to connect Dahagram through Tin Bigha corridor under the project ‘connected Bangladesh’.

To reduce the impact of the contaminated water carried from India by four canals in Akhaura area, both sides have agreed to conduct a joint survey and take necessary actions to prevent health hazards of the local people.

Both sides also agreed to expedite road connectivity.

Both sides agreed on remaining cautious and steadfast to stop smuggling through sharing of real time information and investigation reports of traffickers and remaining extra vigilant in line with the ‘Coordinated Border Management Plan’ in curbing the menace of smuggling of various types of drugs and narcotics, fire arms-ammunitions, explosives, gold, fake Indian currency note, and other contraband items.​

BSF kills Bangladeshi youth at Naogaon border
Staff Correspondent . Rajshahi | Published: 14:03, Mar 26,2024



The Indian Border Security Force killed a Bangladeshi youth in the bordering area in Naogoan district on early Tuesday.

The deceased is Al Amin, 32, son of Abu Bakkar of village Nitpur Colonypara under Porsha upazila in Naogaon.

Al Amin is the second victim of BSF border killing in the seventeen days since its top officials in Dhaka promise to bring down the number of shooting deaths or injuries to Bangladeshi civilians along their shared border to zero on March 9.

Enamul Haque, chairman of Nitpur Union Parishad, said that Al Amin used to bring cows from India as shepherds in exchange for money.

He said that Al Amin along with 10 to 12 others entered India by the side of the main pillar number 232 of the Nitpur border area to fetch cows on Monday night.

While they were returning with cows at 4:00am on Tuesday, BSF members from Agrabad Camp in Murshidabad district opened fire on them, leaving Al Amin dead on the spot.

Boarder Guard Bangladesh-16 battalion captain Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Sadiqur Rahman said that they heard that a Bangladeshi youth was killed in Milmari area in India, which is about two kilometers away from the Bangladesh border.

He said that they sent a letter to the BSF inviting a company commander-level flag meeting in this regard.

Earlier, the BSF killed a Bangladeshi teenage boy and injured at another bordering Moulvibazar village on March 17.

At least 20 Bangladeshi nationals, including a BGB member, were killed in the firing by the Indian BSF since June 2023, according to rights group ASK.​