Trigger-happy border security force, alleges human rights report
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A hard-hitting report by Human Rights Watch indicts the Border Security Force, deployed along the India-Bangladesh border, of unwarranted shootings, killings and torture,and of being allowed to do so by the Indian government
A recent report by the international human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, has found numerous cases of indiscriminate use of force, arbitrary detention, torture, and killings by the Border Security Force deployed on the India-Bangladesh border. The cases are not adequately investigated and the Indian government seems to be tolerant of such abuses, the report alleges.
‘Trigger-Happy, Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border’ is based on over 100 interviews with victims, witnesses, human rights defenders, journalists, and Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) members.
The porous 2,000-km-long India-Bangladesh border is riddled with anomalies, with people’s houses in one country and their fields in the other. Infiltration, trafficking, smuggling and cattle-rustling are common and to check these illegal activities the BSF and Bangladesh Rifles are deployed on either side of the border.
The report cites numerous cases where the BSF has resorted to lethal force to check illegal activities, even when such force is not warranted. ‘This amounts to a de facto shoot-to-kill policy for smugglers, and violates both national and international standards on the right to life and the presumption of innocence which are applicable in India and Bangladesh’, the report says. Odhikar, a local human rights organisation that partnered HRW in this study has documented cases of nearly 1,000 Bangladeshi nationals who have been killed by the BSF in the past decade.
The BSF shoots indiscriminately instead of arresting, and those shot are unarmed or at most have stick and knives. The BSF is required to file a report with the police when someone is killed. The defence in these reports is that the victim was obstructing a public servant while performing his duties, unlawful assembly, or attempted murder. But in none of the cases investigated by HRW was it shown that lethal weapons or explosives were recovered that could have posed a major threat to the lives of the soldiers.
India has also alleged that separatist militants in its northeastern states find sanctuary in Bangladesh and cross into India to perpetrate terrorist attacks. However, few of those killed by the BSF have ever been shown to have been involved in terrorism.
Scores of innocent people, Indian and Bangladeshi, have been victims of BSF abuse, which ranges from verbal abuse and intimidation to torture, beatings, and killings, the report says. On January 25, 2010, Motiar Rahman, a Bangladeshi national strayed across the border whilst cutting grass -- a common mistake as there are no clear markers. According to him, he was captured by the BSF and starved, beaten and kicked severely while in detention. Nirsingha Mondal, from India’s Murshidabad district, said that on May 10, 2009, he had gone out as usual in the morning to collect firewood for cooking. He was dragged into a nearby BSF camp by two soldiers who beat him up and accused him of stealing flowers from their garden. Abdus Samad, accused of smuggling, was dragged out of his hut, beaten in front of his wife and children, and taken away. His family members say he died due to torture in custody. The BSF claims he suddenly became unwell, and then died.
The report is particularly critical of the fact that there is ‘near total absence of effective accountability mechanisms for abuses carried out by members of the BSF’. The BSF is exempt from criminal prosecution unless specific approval is granted by the Indian government for a specific case. ‘This legally sanctioned impunity is even included in a new bill to prohibit torture under consideration in the Indian Parliament.’
BSF personnel are, in theory, liable to be produced before an internal court for making false accusations, or for “disgraceful conduct of a cruel, indecent or unnatural kind”. Although the BSF claims that these courts are routinely used to prosecute those who commit crimes or violate the Border Security Force Act, there are no publicly known cases in which a BSF member has been convicted of a crime for human rights abuse at the India-Bangladesh border. ‘It is time for the Indian government, which claims to follow the rule of law and respect basic rights, to take strong steps to end abuses and holds those responsible to account,’ the report says bluntly.
The report faults the Bangladesh government too for not being overly concerned about the killing of its citizens. A Bangladesh Rifles camp commander told the HRW team that the BSF could not be faulted for shooting dead a man they suspected of being a cattle-rustler (though he was not).
Raman Srivastava, director general of the BSF, responded to Bangladesh’s complaints that the BSF was killing “innocent, unarmed” Bangladeshi civilians by saying: “We fire at criminals who violate the border norms. The deaths have occurred in Indian territory, and mostly during night, so how can they be innocent?”
These comments suggest that officials of both governments believe that it is legal to use lethal force against those suspected of being engaged in smuggling or other illegal activities, the report points out.
Source: ‘Trigger-Happy, Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border’, December 9, 2010