[Reader-list] ... biased & anti India reporting doesn’t help..??..Killing thy neighbour: India, and its Border Security Force

[Lalit Ambardar]

Most Indians continue to see Bangladesh as a friend & wish its people
well. India has been a target of pan Islamism inspired
terrorism emanating from within & from abroad. It has every right to
safeguard its interests & it is expected that Bangladeshis are sensitive to India’s security concerns. There appears
to be growing inter governmental cooperation on the issue.

Uncalled for references to Kashmir in the report that ought to have focused on Indo- Bangladesh relations only smacks of intrinsically
anti India mindset. What India has been
fighting in Kashmir for the past two decades is rather mildly said by Pakistani
journalist/parliamentarian Ayaz Amir (who isn’t any good friend of India any
way) justifying Pakistan’s  full throttle
military assault in SWAT against its own people in ‘A Make-or- break Moment’ in
Khalij Times/Oct 23, 2009 (.http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=opinion&xfile=data/opinion/2009/october/opinion_october114.xml)

…….. The stakes being so
high, there is no choice but to win, and win decisively. Of course it is not
going to be easy. South Waziristan’s
fighters, including the foreign elements, are amongst the most battle-hardened
on the planet. They have been fighting for decades—in Afghanistan,
disputed Kashmir,
now FATA….. 

……….3-5,000 Hezbollah
fighters defeated the Israeli army in Lebanon
in 2006. At the height of the Kashmir
uprising (starting from 1989) there could not have been more than 5-10,000
guerrilla fighters in the Valley. But they tied down close to half a million
Indian troops, the bulk of which remain in Kashmir……


Also, the then Home Minister of India Late Indrajit Gupta who had
quoted a figure of 10 million illegal migrants from Bangladesh didn’t belong to
any ‘Hindu Nationalist’ party, he was a veteran communist leader-one of the senior
most & respectable parliamentarians.

Following press reports along with the gory images of barbarity against
Indian border guards at the hands of Bangladeshis should put to rest  propaganda against India…….

  ……http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010507/bangladesh.shtml”

 ……….http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/68654/Rgds all    

LA



> Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2011 23:01:36 -0800
> From: swadhin_sen at yahoo.com
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> CC: swadhin.sen at gmail.com
> Subject: [Reader-list] Killing thy neighbour: India,	and its Border Security Force
> 
> Killing thy Neighbour.
> India, and its Border Security Force
> rahnuma ahmed
>  
>  
> Felani's clothes got entangled in the barbed wire when she was crossing the Anantapur border in Kurigram.  It
> was 6 in the morning, Friday, 7th January 2011. Felani was 15, she
> worked in Delhi and was returning home with her father after ten years.
> To get married. She screamed. The BSF shot her dead. They took away her
> body.
> 
>  
> The
> fence is made of steel and concrete. Packed with razor wire,
> double-walled and 8-foot high, it is being built by the government of
> India on its border with Bangladesh. When completed, it promises to be
> larger than the United States-Mexico fence, Israel's apartheid wall
> with Palestine, and the Berlin wall put together. It has been dubbed
> the Great Wall of India. 
> 
>  
> The
> fence is being constructed, with floodlighting in parts, to secure
> India's borders against interests hostile to the country. To put in
> place systems that are able to "interdict" these hostile elements. They
> will include a suitable mix and class of various types of hi-tech
> electronic surveillance equipment such as night vision devices,
> handheld thermal imagers, battle field surveillance radars, direction
> finders, unattended ground sensors, high powered telescopes to act as a
> "force multiplier" for "effective" border management. According to its
> rulers, this is "vitally important for national security." 
> 
>  
> Seventy
> percent of fencing along the Bangladesh border has been completed. In
> reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on November 10, 2010, the Indian
> state minister for home affairs said, fencing will be completed by
> March 2012. One estimate puts the project's cost at ₤600 million. 
> 
>  
> The
> colonial boundary division between East Pakistan/Bangladesh and India,
> notes Willem van Schendel, had little to do with modern concepts of
> spatial rationality. It was anything but a straight line, snaking
> "through the countryside in a wacky zigzag pattern" showing no respect
> for history, cutting through innumerable geographical entities, for
> example, the ancient capital of Gaur. It was reflective of someone with
> an "excessively baroque mind" (The Bengal Borderland: Beyond state and
> nation in South Asia, 2005)
> 
>  
> The
> fence divides and separates. Villages. Agricultural lands. Markets.
> Families. Communities. It cuts across mangrove-swamps in the southwest,
> forests and mountains in the northeast (Delwar Hussain, March 2, 2009).
> It divides villages. Everyday village-life must now submit to a tangle
> of bureaucracy as Indian Muslim law clerk, Maznu Rahman Mandal and his
> wife Ahmeda Khatun, a Bangladeshi, discovered after Ahmeda's father
> died. To attend the latter's funeral in the same village, Bhira, they
> would now have to get passports from Delhi, visas from Kolkata (Bidisha
> Bannerjee, December 20, 2010). It split up Fazlur Rehman's family too,
> the fence snaked into their Panidhar village homestead, his younger
> brother who lived right next door, is now in another country (Time,
> February 5, 2009). Other border residents have had their homes split in
> two, the kitchen in one country, the bedroom in another. 
> 
>  
> To
> access one's field, or markets, residents must now line up at long
> queues at the BSF border outposts, surrender their identity cards. They
> must submit to BSF's regimen, which often means disregarding what the
> crop needs. As Mithoo Sheikh of Murshidabad says, "The BSF does not
> understand cultivation problems." By the time we get to the field it is
> noon. Sometimes we get water only at night. But we have to stop working
> at 4pm, because they will not let us remain in the field. If we
> disobey, they beat us, they file false charges. ("Trigger Happy."
> Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border, Human
> Rights Watch, December 2010).
> 
>  
> This
> lack of `understanding' percolates to the topmost levels of both border
> forces. During an official visit to Bangladesh and talks between the
> BSF and the BDR (Bangladesh Rifles, recently renamed Border Guard
> Bangladesh) in September 2010, Raman Srivastava, director general of
> the BSF, in response to allegations that BSF troopers were killing
> innocent and unarmed Bangladeshi civilians said: “The deaths have
> occurred in Indian territory and mostly during night, so how can they
> be innocent?” Ideas reciprocated by the BDR chief Maj. Gen. Mainul
> Islam in March 2010, who, while explaining that there was a history of
> “people and cattle trafficking during darkness” said, “We should not be
> worried about such incidents [killings]…. We have discussed the matter
> and will ensure that no innocent people will be killed.” 
> 
>  
> Abdur
> Rakib was catching fish in Dohalkhari lake, inside Bangladeshi
> territory. It was March 13, 2009. A witness saw a BSF soldier standing
> at the border, talking loudly. "It seemed that he wanted the boy to
> give him some free fish." Heated argument, verbal abuse. "The BSF
> pointed a gun at the boy. The boy ran and the soldier started to
> shoot." Two were injured. Rakib was shot in the chest. He died
> instantly. He was 13.
> 
>  
> Smuggling,
> cattle rustling and human trafficking has increased in the border areas
> as poor farmers and landless people faced by population increases, poor
> irrigation, flooding, and continuous river erosion struggle to make
> ends meet. While both BSF and BGB accuse each other of corruption, the
> reality, says the recent Human Rights Watch report, is that some
> officials, border guards, and politicians on both sides are almost
> certainly involved in smuggling. It quotes a senior BSF official,
> "There are a lot of people involved, including our chaps. That is why
> only these farmers, with one or two cows are caught, not groups that
> ferry large consignments of cattle or drugs." 
> 
>  
> A
> culture of impunity prevails, says Kirity Roy, head of Manabadhikar
> Suraksha Mancha (Masum), a Kolkata-based human rights organisation. We
> have repeatedly approached the courts, the National Human Rights
> Commission (NHRC), the National Minorities Commission, the National
> Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the National
> Commission for Protection of Child Rights. But none of the cases raised
> have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. In some cases, family
> members appeared before the BSF court of inquiry but we, as the de
> facto complainant, were never summoned to appear or depose before any
> inquiry conducted by BSF. No verdicts have been made public.
> 
>  
> Neither
> has BSF provided any details to Bangladeshi authorities of any BSF
> personnel having been prosecuted for human rights violation. Impunity
> is legally sanctioned as the BSF is exempt from criminal prosecution
> unless specific approval is granted by the Indian government. A new
> bill to prohibit torture is being considered by the Indian parliament,
> it includes legal impunity.
> 
>  
> On
> April 22, 2009, when Rabindranath Mandal and his wife were returning to
> Bangladesh after having illegally gone to India for Rabindranath's
> treatment, a BSF patrol team from Ghojadanga camp detained them. She
> was raped. Rabindranath tried to save her, they killed him. The
> following morning, the BSF jawans left her and her husband's dead body
> at the Zero Line at Lakkhidari.
> 
>  
> The
> reason for building the fence, said an Indian Ministry of External
> Affairs spokesperson, is the same as the United States' Mexico fence.
> As Israel's fence on the West Bank. To prevent illegal migration and
> terrorist infiltration. 
> 
>  
> But
> Rizwana Shamshad points out that the hysteria generated by the Hindu
> nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the 1980s and 1990s—Bangladeshi
> Muslim `infiltration' by the millions constitutes a serious strain on
> the national economy, it poses a threat to India's stability and
> security, it represents a challenge to Indian sovereignty, demographic
> changes will soon lead to Bangladeshi citizens demanding a separate
> state from India—did
> not withstand investigation. A study carried out by the Centre for
> Study of Society and Secularism in 1995 revealed that the BJP-Shiv Sena
> allegations were not only an exaggeration, but a complete fabrication.
> Fears and insecurities had been deliberately whipped up to consolidate
> Hindutva ideology; migrants, it seemed, were more preoccupied with
> struggling to make a living. While the BJP-Shiv Sena had alleged that
> there were 300,000 illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Mumbai, they were
> able to detect and deport only 10,000 Bangladeshi migrants, when in
> power (1998-2004). 
> 
>  
> The
> numbers vary with each media or official report, writes Rizwana. A BJP
> National Executive meeting declared over 15 million (April 1992).
> Nearly 10 million, said former Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta (May
> 6, 1997). The group of cabinet ministers (home, defence, external
> affairs, finance) set up by prime minister Vajpayee post-Kargil,
> reported 15 million (2000). The definitions, she adds, are prejudiced:
> Muslim migrants are described as `infiltrators.' Hindu migrants as
> `refugees.' Neither is there any mention of the Indian economy having
> benefited from cheap labour. 
> 
>  
> The
> HRW report notes, few killed by the BSF have ever been shown to have
> been involved in terrorism. In the cases investigated, alleged
> criminals were armed with nothing but sickles, sticks and knives,
> implements commonly carried by villagers. Nor do the dead bodies bear
> out BSF's justification that they had fired in self-defense. Shots in
> the back indicate that the victims had been shot running away. Shots at
> close range signal they were probably killed in custody. 
> 
>  
> BSF
> kills Indian nationals too. In Indian territory. Basirun Bibi and her 6
> month old grandson Ashique, May 2010. Atiur Rahman, March 2010.
> Shahjahan Gazi, November 2009. Noor Hossain, September 2009.
> Shyamsundar Mondal, August 2009. Sushanta Mondal, July 2009. Abdus
> Samad, May 2009. The imposition of informal curfews on both sides of
> the border at night, reportedly to prevent the accidental shooting of
> villagers, has not lessened the number of innocent people killed. 
> 
>  
> Beatings,
> torture, rape, killings. What could be the reason for such compulsively
> violent behaviour? According to the HRW report, it could have been
> caused by previous deployment in the Indo-Pakistan border in Kashmir,
> by "difficult and tense periods of duty."
> 
>  
> However,
> checkpoints, curfews, hi-tech electronic surveillance equipment,
> harassment, intimidation, beatings, torture and sniper fire remind me
> of Gaza. Not surprising, given that once finished, the fence will "all
> but encircle Bangladesh" (Time, February 5, 2009). 
> 
>  
> The
> 1947 colonial border division was reflective of someone with an
> "excessively baroque mind." Its brutal enforcement through fencing,
> through the deployment of trigger happy BSF soldiers, speak of a
> Nazi-state mentality. 
> 
>  
> Not too far-fetched given Israel and India's "limitless relationship" (Military Ties Unlimited. India and Israel, New Age, January 18, 2010).
> This includes Israeli training of Indian commandos in urban warfare and
> counter-insurgency operations (in Kashmir), and proposals for offering
> the Border Security Forces specialised training. Given Israel's
> behaviour, which Auschwitz survivor, Hajo Meyer, likens to the Nazis. "I can write up an endless list of similarities between Nazi Germany and Israel".
> 
>  
> Israel's
> inability to learn to live with its neighbours is increasingly turning
> it into a "pariah state" (British MP). Its "paranoia" has been noted by
> Israelis themselves (Gideon Levy). That a similar future awaits India,
> is increasingly clear.
> ----------------http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/editorial/4482.html
> 
> Published in New Age, Monday December 10, 2011 http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/editorial/4482.html
> 
> PIC  http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Vc9VvIqNhJY/S7YhGyiePtI/AAAAAAAAMAY/e9-2EQ1R1d4/s1600/20+killed+in+BSF+firing.jpg
> 
>  
> To post comments pls go to: http://www.shahidulnews.com/  
> 
> -------------------------
> 
> 
> Swadhin Sen Archaeologist - Assistant Professor   Dept.of Archaeology            Tel:       +88 02 779 10 45-51 Ext. 1326 Jahangirnagar University      Mobile:  +88 0172 019 61 76   Savar,Dhaka. Bangladesh    Fax:      +88 02 779 10 52    swadhin_sen at yahoo.com; swadhinsen at hotmail.com www.juniv.edu
> 
> 
> 
>       
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>