People living in char-villages adjacent to the frontier with India are spending days in a panic because of repeated intrusions by the members of Indian Border Security Forces( BSF) deep inside Bangladeshi territory and villages and retaliating against them.
It is alleged, often the members of BSF intrude into the Bangladeshi bordering villages of Nazirpur, Kharijagati, Khorchaka, Mollapara and Chalkpara under Godagari upazila of Rajshahi by crossing no man's land and beat the cowhands and local residents who used to feed their cattle herds in the fields inside Bangladeshi territory.
According to sources, on February-26, 2023, two BSF members along with two Indian civilians intruded some 300 metres inside Bangladeshi territory at the village Nirmalchar. They chased and caught a Bangladeshi cowhand grazing his cattle at the Charland of river Padma and beat him with the butt of rifles fracturing the skull of his head. They even pointed the rifle to shoot him when other Bangladeshi cowhands protested and resisted the BSFs' intrusion and action. The Bangladeshi cowhands, then re-chased the BSF members and snatched away two rifles from the possession of the BSF, and retaliated by cracking the skulls of the heads of BSF jawans with the butt of the snatched rifles. The Bangladesh cowhands were also injured in the incident and the BSF jawans managed to escape inside Indian territory by leaving two rifles. Later, BGB members of Khorchaka frontier post recovered those rifles and returned those to the BSF after holding a Sector Commander level Flag Meeting the same evening.
BGB also lodged a strong protest with the BSF for illegally intruding into Bangladeshi territory by crossing the borderline and beating and injuring the Bangladeshi farmhand. Aftermath of the incident, Bangladeshi cow hands are not daring to graze their cattle heads at the char lands adjacent to the border.
Bangladeshi cattle hand Feroz Ahmed(26) of Mollapara village whose head was fractured in BSF retaliation on Sunday last was seen to take rest at his house on Wednesday noon. With bandaged head, he informed, the doctors needed to use seven stitches to realign his fractured skull. He said he had been grazing his buffaloes at his own field, some 300 metres inside the no man's land. Suddenly, he saw two BSF members and two Indian cow-hands rushing toward him.
Watching the approaching BSF and the cowhands, he became panicky and tried to retreat but they caught him and started to beat him indiscriminately even with the butt of the rifle on his head and fracturing the skull. He complained, often BSF members often intrude into their land and even in villages and take away their cows and buffaloes. As a result, people in the village are living in panic, he added, mentioning that the villagers are not daring to take their buffaloes to the fields and to the Charland for grazing.
Villager Emdadul Haque Babu(65) was present during the incident. He said, BSF members were pointing their guns toward us but I, another villager Jamal and some three to four local cowhands caught the BSF members and threw down their guns on the ground. The BSF failed to take up their guns, otherwise, they would shoot us down. We then took away those guns from their possession, he added.
He further said, earlier BSF has three times beaten and severely injured three Bangladeshi cowhands. Indian civilian cowhands were also assisting them.
Those 'tiny' (khudi) Indian cow hands posing as 'Modi' entered the Bangladeshi territory claiming the land belonged to India and BSF also being convinced by the claim of those Khudis, chased and beat us.
Lieutenant Colonel Sabbir Ahmed, Commander of the BGB-1 battalion, Rajshahi, informed the frontier in the region is open. Such isolated incidents also occurred here earlier. It can not be termed as repeated incidents in the true sense but it might be a result of a misunderstanding. There is no barbed wire fencing along the borderline and many frontier demarcation pillars have also been covered under the sand.
The overall situation is now normal, he added saying that the incident of 26 February is an isolated one. Still, the BGB is requesting the Bangladeshi cowhands not to take their buffaloes to the bordering Charland.