Need a change in BSF attitude.
The Tv footage of a Bangladeshi being tortured by BSF personnel was, to say the least, appalling and contemptible. It shows a depraved mentality. The Indian TV channels deserve compliments for exposing the brutal side of the BSF behaviour at the borders. The pictures were a shocking and outrageous narrative of how one cattle smuggler was tied hand and feet after being deprived of his clothes and mercilessly beaten up by the BSF jawans, apparently for not paying up the BSF for plying his trade, smuggling cows.
We have in the past repeatedly highlighted the issue of BSF highhandedness and their rather trigger free attitude on the borders, and called for reining in the Indian border guards. If anything, the TV footage has vindicated our position.
Killings of Bangladeshi nationals at the borders by BSF have been taking place with impunity. Nothing has been done to bring down these killings despite assurances from the highest quarters in India. Regrettably, according to human rights bodies, in the last three years more than 200 Bangladeshi nationals have fallen victims to BSF firing, among them many women and children, and many tortured to death by the BSF.
It is a matter of regret that these should continue to occur given the state of bilateral relationship between the two countries. Descriptions of the Indo-Bangladesh border as the “world's deadliest frontier” or “one of the world's most dangerous border” are some of the testimonials to the insensitive way that the border is being managed.
Although such incidents have been termed as human rights violation by the Human Rights Watch in 2010, the perpetrators have apparently gone scot-free so far. We are glad that the Indian authorities have acted quickly by suspending the jawans. We would hope that these errant BSF men would be made examples of.
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