Bangladeshi youth injured in BSF firing along C’nawabganj border
Staff Correspondent . Rajshahi 25 January, 2025, 14:56
A Bangladeshi farmer was injured as the Indian Border Security Force opened fire on him at Telkupi bordering area under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj early Saturday.
The injured, Habil Uddin, 30, of Telkupi village under the upazila, is now undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
The incident happened just two days after a sector commander-level meeting between the Border Guard Bangladesh and the BSF on Wednesday had decided to allow Bangladeshi and Indian farmers to enter the 150-yard area from the border pillars.
Sankar K Biswas, the in-charge of RMCH emergency department, said that the victim’s family members took bullet-hit Habil to the hospital at about 11:30am on Saturday.
‘Habil received a bullet in his back and he had to undergo an immediate surgery,’ he said.
Before entering the room of the operation theatre, Habil, claiming himself as a farmer, told New Age that he went to water his wheat field in the Telkupi border area at about 5:30am.
‘When I started the shallow-engine-run pump, BSF personnel who had been standing inside the Indian side, opened fire targeting me. As I started to flee, a bullet hit me,’ he added.
The BGB, however, claimed that injured Habil was a smuggler.
The 59th BGB battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Golam Kibria said that BSF personnel opened fire when a group of eight Bangladeshi youths had illegally entered India for a smuggling attempt.
Muhammad Kashed Ali, a member of Shahbajpur Union Parishad who visited the wheat field, said that local people informed him that Habil had never been involved in smuggling.
‘He is a farmer who went to water his wheat field,’ he said.
On January 8, tension erupted along Chowka border under Shibganj in the district as the BSF began constructing fences along the border despite repeated objections from the BGB.
According to international law, no permanent structures or fences, except for agricultural activities, can be erected within 150 yards of the border pillars of either country.
Amid growing tension between the two neighbouring countries, the BSF has issued a 10-day ‘Ops Alert’ from January 22, and will exercise the alert along the India-Bangladesh border to tighten security during India’s 76th Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
The tightened security will continue until January 31 marking the Republic Day and owing to the changed scenario in Bangladesh, according to an anandabazar.com report published on January 24.
Tensions have persisted in the border areas since the final week of December 2024 as the BGB and local people protested against India’s construction of barbed wire fences at five points along the border in Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Lalmonirhat.
On January 12, the foreign ministry summoned the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, and expressed concern over the construction of barbed wire fences and protested at the killing of a Bangladesh national by the BSF.
On January 18, Indian villagers clashed with Bangladeshis over harvesting crops on the no man’s land along the border, leaving three people injured along the Chowka border in Chapainawabganj.
Following the incident, the BGB and the BSF on January 22 decided not to allow anyone except Bangladeshi and Indian farmers to enter the 150-yard area from the border pillars and resolve border issues through discussions and coordination between the duo security forces.
According to human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra, at least 25 Bangladeshis were shot to death by the BSF members, while 25 others were injured in 2024.