Alleged Bangladeshi smuggler killed near border with India

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Bangladesh police on Wednesday recovered the body of a 22-year-old man with four gunshot marks from a village in the northern Dinajpur district, near the border with India.

Local police recovered the body of Manzurul Islam from Sahapur Kamarpara village in the presence of Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) officials and shifted it to a hospital morgue for autopsy, Chirirbandar town police official Bajlur Rashid told Anadolu over the phone.

Family members and locals claimed that the victim was shot dead along the border early Wednesday by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF).

However, Rashid said after an investigation and medical report, the police will be able to determine whether the youth was killed by the BSF or not.

According to preliminary information, a senior BGB official believes the youth was involved in smuggling and bringing goods and drugs from the Indian side.

BGB Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Alamgir Kabir told Anadolu that the youth crossed the Indian border for drug smuggling and was shot dead by the BSF. “We have conveyed our concern to the Indian BSF,” he added.

Kabir said illegal smuggling is a major cause of such killings.

The two South Asian countries share a 4,096-kilometer (2,545-mile) international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world.

At least six Bangladeshis have been killed and six others have been injured by BSF this year, according to Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK), a local non-government legal aid and human rights organization.

The ASK report said the BSF killed at least 16 Bangladeshis along the border with India in 2022 and 18 in 2021.

At least 1,236 Bangladeshis were killed and 1,145 injured in BSF shootings between 2000 and 2020, according to Odhikar, another local human rights organization in the country.