Bangladesh/India: Indiscriminate killings, abuse by border officers

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A BSF soldier checks residents as they return through a security gate to their village on the other side of the fence. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Residents graze their cattle in Char Muradpur near Farazipara. Cattle smuggling is one of the main illegal activities in this border region. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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A flag is all that marks the border. Without clear markers, people can often cross the border mistakenly, and are then at risk of arrest and torture by border guards in both countries. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Nazim Mondal holds a picture of his dead son. Sixteen-year-old Peparul Sheikh was killed by the Border Security Force. Peparul was with his cousin Aminul Islam when they saw BSF constables helping smugglers push through some 30-40 cows into Bangladesh, after which, the BSF personnel started chasing the boys. While Aminul managed to flee, he saw Peparul being caught by the soldiers who beat him with their rifles, boots and wooden sticks. Then one of the soldiers shot the teenager in the chest. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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A girl watches her goats as they graze behind the border fence in Kuchlibari village. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Residents are checked at a Border Security Force outpost on the bank of the Padma river as they go to and from their farmlands and village in Char Muradpur near Farazipara. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Safanur Bewa, and her grandson Salim Sheikh, at their home in Brahmottor village. Salim’s brother Noor Hossain was killed by the Border Security Force. Noor Hossain had stepped out at night, and was brutally beaten by the BSF. Eyewitnesses told family members that he was first beaten to death, and then shot so that the BSF could claim he was evading arrest. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Mritunjay Mondal shows his injured arm at his home in Char Rajpur Paschim Colony village. He was shot and injured by the Border Security Force. He also lost his right eye in the incident. “Smugglers often operate in this area to take cattle through the border. That day, two BSF constables were chasing some and were angry, I think, because the smugglers had got away, and started shooting. One bullet hit the tree next to me, and the other struck me in the arm. I fell down unconscious.” © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Ramesh Chandra Mondal and Rai Bala Mondal with a photograph of their son in their home in Char Munshipara Barobigha Colony. According to eyewitnesses, BSF personnel from the 191st Battalion caught the smugglers while they were taking the cows into Bangladesh and immediately opened fire without warning. One of the bullets struck Shyamsundar in the back. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Durga Charan Mondal and Tunubala Mondal outside their home in Char Munshipara village. Their son Shibajit, 28, was killed by the Border Security Force. Shibajit was smuggling cattle around midnight on March 14, 2009, when, according to his associates, four soldiers of the BSF’s 90th Battalion came upon the smugglers and started shooting at them without warning. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Rima Bewa with her children at her home in Bishwanathpur village. Her husband Abdus Samad was killed by the Border Security Force. Suspecting 35-year-old Abdus Samad of smuggling, several BSF personnel forcibly entered his mud hut in Murshidabad district on May 5, 2009. The soldiers beat Abdus Samad in front of his family and then dragged him away. Family members say that he died due to torture in custody. The BSF claims that he became suddenly unwell, and then died. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
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Floodlit sections of the Indian fence in West Bengal, on the border with Bangladesh. © 2010 Prashant Panjiar 168931
Over the past decade, hundreds of Bangladeshi and Indian nationals have been killed by India’s Border Security Force (BSF), but despite numerous complaints no member of the BSF has been arrested, much less held to account in civilian courts. The porous 2,000 kilometer border between the Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh is densely populated by farmers and landless peasants. Abuses by the BSF and the Bangladeshi border force, the Bangladesh Rifles, are common, including torture and the indiscriminate use of lethal force. Photographs by Prashant Panjiar.
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