 |
15-year-old Bangladeshi girl Felani
Khatun's dead body dangling from
the border fence after Indian border
guards shot her on the fence as she
was trying to cross the border. |
Security officials openly admit that
unarmed civilians trying to enter India illegally are being killed. Will the
government act?
Do good fences make good neighbours?
Not along the India-Bangladesh border. Here, India has almost finished building
a 2,000km fence. Where once people on both sides were part of a greater Bengal,
now India has put up a "keep out" sign to stop illegal immigration,
smuggling and infiltration by anti-government militants.
This might seem unexceptional in a
world increasingly hostile to migration. But to police the border, India's
Border Security Force (BSF), has carried out a shoot-to-kill policy – even on
unarmed local villagers. The toll has been huge.
Over the past 10 years Indian security
forces have killed almost 1,000 people, mostly Bangladeshis, turning the border
area into a south Asian killing fields. No one has been prosecuted for any of
these killings, in spite of evidence in many cases that makes it clear the
killings were in cold blood against unarmed and defenceless local residents.
