04-19-2005, 11:03 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>India mute witness to BDR's slaughter of BSF officer </b>
Daily Pioneer
2004/04/18
Kanchan Gupta / New Delhi
On Saturday night, an Assistant Commandant and a constable of the Border Security Force, on duty at Lankamura outpost on the India-Bangladesh border a mere 8 km from Tripura's capital, Agartala, were dragged into Bangladeshi territory.
By the time the BSF got them back, Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar was dead. He had been shot at point blank range. Injuries on his body indicate he was brutally knifed before being killed. Constable KK Surendran, seriously injured, is battling for his life.
Reports suggest that the two were dragged across the border by a group of Bangladeshis in civilian clothes and then set upon by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel. All the while, the BDR kept firing on the Lankamura outpost. The firing stopped around midnight, followed by a hastily arranged flag meeting during which Kumar's lifeless body and a barely alive Surendran were handed over to the BSF.
The incident revives memories of the slaughter of 16 jawans of the BSF by the BDR on April 18, 2001. Then, Bangladeshi civilians had trapped the BSF jawans into crossing the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. BDR personnel then killed them in cold blood.
The UPA Government is yet to take note of Saturday's incident; even if cursory note, apart from the routine protest lodged by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs, it has been drowned by the sound and din of Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit. In 2001, the NDA Government had let the slaughter pass because it did not want to "upset a friendly Government" - then headed by Sheikh Hasina Wajed.
Truce along the India-Bangladeshi border is extremely uneasy at the best of times, with the BDR often resorting to unprovoked firing with the purpose of either stalling work on border fencing or distracting BSF personnel so that illegal immigrants, at times scores of families, can sneak across.
In the past couple of months, the BDR has resorted to heavy firing on five occasions along the 856-km stretch in Tripura of India's 4,095 km border with Bangladesh. Tripura is one of the major entry points of Bangladeshi immigrants.
Ironically, Saturday's incident occurred while BSF Director General RS Mooshahary was in Dhaka, attending a high-level meeting with BDR Chief Maj. Gen Jehangir Alam Chowdhury to work out the modalities of better border management and coordinated patrolling.
Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to attend the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka, scheduled for early February this year, citing Bangladesh's deteriorating law and order problem as one of the reasons, the UPA Government has been extremely lethargic in confronting the problems India faces from its increasingly belligerent eastern neighbour: illegal immigration, sanctuary for separatists and export of Islamists.
This despite the Supreme Court repeatedly issuing notices to the Union Government on steps being taken to tackle the burgeoning problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Last week, seven non-BJP Chief Ministers, including those from North-Eastern states, Left Front-ruled West Bengal and Congress-ruled Maharashtra, voiced concern over illegal immigration at the Chief Ministers' conference on internal security.
With all attention focused on Pakistan, the silence on Bangladesh maintained by successive Union Governments has only emboldened Dhaka. Begum Khaleda Zia's regime knows that India will not protest, not even with a rap on the knuckles. Therefore, BDR can kill BSF personnel with impunity, secure in the knowledge there shall be no punishment for their crime.
The widow and three-year-old daughter of Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar in distant Ranchi are of little concern in imperial Delhi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Daily Pioneer
2004/04/18
Kanchan Gupta / New Delhi
On Saturday night, an Assistant Commandant and a constable of the Border Security Force, on duty at Lankamura outpost on the India-Bangladesh border a mere 8 km from Tripura's capital, Agartala, were dragged into Bangladeshi territory.
By the time the BSF got them back, Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar was dead. He had been shot at point blank range. Injuries on his body indicate he was brutally knifed before being killed. Constable KK Surendran, seriously injured, is battling for his life.
Reports suggest that the two were dragged across the border by a group of Bangladeshis in civilian clothes and then set upon by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel. All the while, the BDR kept firing on the Lankamura outpost. The firing stopped around midnight, followed by a hastily arranged flag meeting during which Kumar's lifeless body and a barely alive Surendran were handed over to the BSF.
The incident revives memories of the slaughter of 16 jawans of the BSF by the BDR on April 18, 2001. Then, Bangladeshi civilians had trapped the BSF jawans into crossing the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. BDR personnel then killed them in cold blood.
The UPA Government is yet to take note of Saturday's incident; even if cursory note, apart from the routine protest lodged by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs, it has been drowned by the sound and din of Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit. In 2001, the NDA Government had let the slaughter pass because it did not want to "upset a friendly Government" - then headed by Sheikh Hasina Wajed.
Truce along the India-Bangladeshi border is extremely uneasy at the best of times, with the BDR often resorting to unprovoked firing with the purpose of either stalling work on border fencing or distracting BSF personnel so that illegal immigrants, at times scores of families, can sneak across.
In the past couple of months, the BDR has resorted to heavy firing on five occasions along the 856-km stretch in Tripura of India's 4,095 km border with Bangladesh. Tripura is one of the major entry points of Bangladeshi immigrants.
Ironically, Saturday's incident occurred while BSF Director General RS Mooshahary was in Dhaka, attending a high-level meeting with BDR Chief Maj. Gen Jehangir Alam Chowdhury to work out the modalities of better border management and coordinated patrolling.
Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to attend the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka, scheduled for early February this year, citing Bangladesh's deteriorating law and order problem as one of the reasons, the UPA Government has been extremely lethargic in confronting the problems India faces from its increasingly belligerent eastern neighbour: illegal immigration, sanctuary for separatists and export of Islamists.
This despite the Supreme Court repeatedly issuing notices to the Union Government on steps being taken to tackle the burgeoning problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Last week, seven non-BJP Chief Ministers, including those from North-Eastern states, Left Front-ruled West Bengal and Congress-ruled Maharashtra, voiced concern over illegal immigration at the Chief Ministers' conference on internal security.
With all attention focused on Pakistan, the silence on Bangladesh maintained by successive Union Governments has only emboldened Dhaka. Begum Khaleda Zia's regime knows that India will not protest, not even with a rap on the knuckles. Therefore, BDR can kill BSF personnel with impunity, secure in the knowledge there shall be no punishment for their crime.
The widow and three-year-old daughter of Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar in distant Ranchi are of little concern in imperial Delhi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->