7th January: Justice beckons in Bangladesh

Today is the 7th of January. Two years into the day when an innocent girl named Felani was murdered inhumanly at the hands of forces kept in place to enforce humanity. The BSF, or the Border Security Forces, represents the eyes, ears and hands of the largest democracy of the world, the mighty country called India. But the mightiness of its democratic ideals came crashing on that day when Felani was murdered at the hands of the BSF. They claimed she was crossing the border illegally, climbing the fences, posing a threat to the sovereignty of their mighty country, forcing them to shoot her in self defence. A nation believed them.

And another nation cried. Felani’s dead body was allowed to hang from the fence for 5 hours after which the BSF pulled her down, strapped her legs and hands to a bamboo pole and carried her dead body away proudly. They had murdered for their Motherland. They were the Guardians of a nation.

But the reality could not be further from the truth. Seeing humanity on barbed wire, emotion overwhelmed all. Denizens on both sides of the border shed their tears, irrespective of cast, creed or nationality. The picture of a dead Felani hanging on the barbed wire made a nation enraged, and the nation demanded justice. Following up on the events and flow of emotions, the worls demanded that India stop killing innocent civilians on the border in name of self defense. The interior minister of India, P.Chidambaram, came to Dhaka and promised that the BSF would never again under any circumstance ‘kill’ any unarmed civilian. 

Apparently, breaking promises is what successive Indian governments excel at. Human rights organization, Ain and Shaleesh Kendro, has reported that 76 Bangladeshis have been killed by the BSF in 2011 and 2012 while at least 474 have been victims of BSF torture. How long will the Bangladesh Government keep quiet and endure these criminals who can only laugh at its meek indecisiveness?