The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh On Thursday lodged a formal protest with India after the body of a Bangladeshi minor girl was found along the Tripura border.
"MoFA has lodged a formal protest to the Govt of India on the killing of a 13-year-old Bangladeshi girl, Shwarna Das of Juri upazila of Moulvibazar district, who was shot by BSF of India on 01 September 2024," the foreign minister said in a post on X.
The girl, identified as Shwarna Das of Juri upazila of Moulvibazar district, was found dead on September 1. Bangladesh local reports claimed that the teenage girl was shot dead by the Border Security Forces.
The MoFA of Bangladesh sent a protest note to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka on September 5 in a bid to showcase its protest and condemn the act. Expressing deep concern, Dhaka reiterated that such incidents of border killing are unwarranted and undesirable. It also reminded that such actions violate the provisions of the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities, 1975, Dhaka Tribune reported.
As per the report, Bangladesh has called upon India to cease the repetition of such acts and initiate inquiries into all border killings. It has also asked India to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.
Probe On To Ascertain Who Shot The Bangladeshi Girl
This comes after the Tripura Police and the BSF on Tuesday jointly handed over the body of the minor, whose bullet-ridden body was recovered near the Laitapura Border Outpost (BOP) along the Indo-Bangla International Border in Kailashahar of Tripura’s Unakoti district.
Police officials from the Irani police station at Kailashahar stated that the girl's body was found on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, following which it was sent for post-mortem by a BSF team. The body was identified by the deceased's father from Bangladesh and was handed over to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and Bangladesh Police authorities.
According to police officials, the girl was 16 and was part of a large group of people who had infiltrated into India illegally after fleeing Bangladesh. Although she certainly died from a bullet wound, it is yet to be ascertained which side fired that bullet. "We found a bullet wound on her. It is still under investigation how it happened," an officer from the Irani police station told The Indian Express.
Minor's Father Claims Daughter Shot By BSF: Bangladesh Local Reports
Dhaka, on the other hand, claims that the girl was not 16 but 13 and was shot and killed in BSF firing. Lt Col Mizanur Rahman Shikdar, sector commandant of the BGB in Sreemangal, claimed that the minor was fatally shot by BSF personnel as she and others attempted to cross into India near the Lalarchak border area on Sunday night, Dhaka Tribune reported.
The report also stated that Shwarna, her father Porendra Das, and her mother had attempted to enter India illegally to visit her brother, who lives in Tripura. The deceased's father said that they had reached the Indian side of the fence at around 9 PM on Sunday when the BSF personnel opened fire, leading to his daughter's death on the spot.
'I Don't Know How It Helps India': Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser On Border Killings
In an exclusive interview with ABP News, Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hussain discussed the issue of border killings while talking about the Bangaldesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal framework. He stressed on the need to achieve 'zero death at the border', adding that when someone is killed at the border, the "entire Bangladesh feels the bitterness". "I don’t know how it helps India," he added.
"This is absolutely achievable. The ‘zero death at the border’... which has been touted for the last so many years. This has not come up. I personally believe that this is very much achievable with goodwill from India," he said.
He further underlined that killing is not the answer for handling irregularities at the border. "It was said that there were crimes on the border… Which border is there in the world where there is no crime? On every border, small or large, crimes are there, some irregularities are there, but people live with them. They don’t kill people for that," Hussain said.
The Foreign Affairs Adviser also added that if the border killings could be stopped then "a lot of grievances of the people of Bangladesh would go away".