BSF 'firing' goes up at border area

KOLKATA: The number of people killed in BSF firing in South Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh more than doubled in 2002. While only 27 such casualties were reported in 2001, BSF sources put the figure at 57 the next year.
Significantly, the number of Indians (16) killed was higher in 2001 than in 2002 when 44 Bangladeshis were gunned down by the Border Security Force.
The increasingly volatile border also witnessed the killing of two BSF jawans while 68 BSF personnel were reported to have been injured.
The killings have snowballed into a major political issue in bordering areas, with political parties claiming the victims to be innocent while BSF variously describes them as cattle-traffickers and smugglers.
"How can politicians call the persons innocent when they had snatched rifles from the BSF jawans in Chapra? It is unfortunate that some politicians are instigating people against us for narrow gains when we are taking tough action to safeguard national interests. Such charges are never levelled in Punjab," said a senior BSF official here.
"The BSF killed a middle-aged woman in cold blood a few months back when she went to give food and water to her son working in the field beyond the border fencing. Do they consider her a smuggler or an ISI operative?" retorted Forward Bloc MLA Gobinda Roy.
A confidante of agriculture minister Kamal Guha, Roy was one of the convenors of a recent meet in Kolkata to protest ''BSF atrocities'' in border districts.
"You cannot fight infiltration or terrorism by terrorising your own people," said state relief minister H.A. Sairani. He and Roy blamed the BSF for running a ''fiefdom'' along the border. They accused the BSF of imposing ''dusk to dawn curfew'' in border areas. "This is to facilitate smuggling and trafficking of men and cattle as both BSF and BDR border posts receive payment from border gangs," alleged Roy.
BSF officials denied the allegations and quoted figures of seizure of contraband goods and deportation of Bangladeshis in the last three years. They said the value of recovered goods jumped from Rs 24 crore in 2000 to Rs 64 crore in 2002 at the south Bengal border.
The number of Bangladesh nationals intercepted and sent back at the border also rose during the period. In 2000, 5,162 people were deported while in the next two years 6,089 and 7,154 people were sent back.
"Corelate the number of persons killed with these figures and you get the real picture," claimed BSF officials.