Monday, May 19, 2003
Monday, May 19, 2003 |
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By Haroon Habib
A study conducted by News Network said the BSF personnel abducted 118 Bangladeshis, while 35 others, including nine infants, were missing. It said farmers feared to venture out during daytime in border areas. The casualty figures show a rise from that of 1996 when the BSF allegedly killed 13 persons. The report, circulated to newspapers, said the BSF gunned down 11 persons in 1997, 23 in 1998, 33 in 1999, 25 in 2000 and 69 in 2001. Eight Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel were killed and nine injured during 1996-2001. The study, however, did not compile the casualties on the other side of the border. It said the BSF men frequently went on a shooting spree targeting innocent villagers in Bangladesh territory accusing them of crossing the border. People living along the border were also targets of "Indian miscreants" who attacked frontier Bangladeshi villages and looted houses, crops and cattle head. Quoting farmers in border areas, the report said, the farmers hardly went out with their daughters and wives lest they fell prey to Indian miscreants. This is one of the main reasons for the growing trend of early marriages and women trafficking in the frontier areas, the report said. It alleged that the Indian border guards dragged 27 Bangladeshi fishermen into India while they were fishing in river Padma on Sept 24, 2002. The fishermen were later released following a flag meeting between the BDR and the BSF. Several farmers at Poba in Rajshahi, Hilly in Dinajpur, Burimari in Lalmonirhat, Joypurhat frontier areas, Haluaghat in Mymensingh and Durgapur and Kamolakanta in Netrakona districts have stopped cultivating their lands allegedly fearing BSF attacks. Quoting correspondents, who visited several villages in the frontier areas in connection with the study work, the study said they hardly saw any development programmes: neither in health sector nor in education. The study said over two lakh women and children were smuggled into India in the last 10 years. Twenty per cent of sex workers in India were Bangladeshis, it said. A UNICEF study said 95 per cent of the smuggled women and girls were aged between 17 and 24 and were illiterates.Meanwhile, in the early hours of Sunday, the BSF allegedly pushed in eight persons into Bangladesh territory through the Buripota border of Meherpur Sadar upazila. Locals said that the people were Bengali-speaking Indian citizens.
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