Kolkata, India (BBN)-India and Bangladesh have recently signed the Land Boundary Agreement, opening up new possibilities for these two neighbours.
But what’s worrying is the years of frosty relationship they shared in the past, and more recently, the case of a girl from Bangladesh, Felani Khatun, reports The Economic Times.
On January 7, 2011, 15-year-old Khatun, a Bangladeshi immigrant, was shot by a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan while crossing over to Bangladesh at the international border checkpoint at Chaudharihat in Dinhata, Cooch Behar, in West Bengal.
Her body was hung upside down on the barbed wire fence, pictures of which went viral in cyber space those days.
Soon after, political ties between the two countries took a beating, prompting the Indian government to direct the BSF to start a trial in the case.
Under pressure, BSF arrested the jawan who shot her and the trial started in 2013.
Khatun’s father, Nurul Islam, crossed the border on August 17, 2013, to depose before the court of inquiry.
The evidence was too stark to be ignored, and a first-of-its-kind court of inquiry was set up.
The panel included also had five senior BSF officers.
Significantly, after the incident, the border forces signed an agreement that restricted BSF to use lethal weapons while guarding the border.
The BSF man who allegedly shot Felani had been identified as Amiya Ghosh, and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
After his first acquittal, the then ADG, BSF (east), BD Sharma ordered a revision of the trial in 2014 and Ghosh was again acquitted in July, 2015.
“We never demanded capital punishment and only sought justice. But acquitting the jawan twice isn’t justice,” Islam’s lawyer Abraham Lincoln told ET from Bangladesh over phone.
When contacted, DK Pathak, DG, BSF, told ET, “I am yet to receive the file.
After receiving it, we will examine the or der.
The proceedings generally take time and we don’t interfere in the court’s proceedings.
Distraught family members of Khatun has appealed to the Bangladeshi government and the Director General of BSF to review the order passed by a BSF court in July acquitting Ghosh.
“For the last three years, we have been fighting for our daughter. We were grateful to India for setting up this trial, but now it appears to be a farce.They ordered revision of trials twice, and every time he was acquitted. We were not even informed during the final trial, when I am the only witness to the incident,” said Islam. “We have appealed to Bangaldeshi government to take up the matter with India. A petition has already been filed with the Supreme Court (India) in this regard.”
BBN/SK/AD