BSF shoots 2 Bangladeshis dead at Lalmonirhat border

The Border Security Force (BSF) of India has shot and killed two Bangladeshis along the Bangladesh-India border in Lalmonirhat’s Patgram upazila.

The victims have been identified as Yunus Ali, 26, a resident of Burimari union of the upazila, and Sagar Chandra, 40, from Nilphamari’s Dimla upazila, according to media reports.

The incident was reported early on Sunday from a village near Changrabandha town across the border, said Patgram police station OC Omar Farooq.

The two along with several other cattle traders crossed into India and were spotted by a patrol BSF team while returning to Bangladesh. At one point, the BSF troops opened fire killing Yunus and Sagar on the spot, media reports quoted sources at the police and the local Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) battalion.

The bodies are yet to be brought back.

The local Burimari BGB camp’s chief Subedar Belal Hossain said that they have written to the BSF protesting the killings and asked them to hand over the victim’s bodies.

However, the BSF is yet to reply, he said. 

A total of 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 others injured in BSF shooting along the Bangladesh-India border from 2000 to 2020, according to an estimate of rights organization Odhikar.

Of them, 51 were killed and 27 injured in 2020 alone, making it the highest number of casualties in recent years, they said.

Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) says at least six people were victims of border killing by the Indian border force in the first seven months of 2021. Four Bangladeshis were injured and three others were abducted during the same period.