Border Security Force (BSF) has expressed its concern over the rising number of border killings in the last few months while participating in the 48th director general (DG) level border conference between BGB and India's Border Security Force (BSF).
"Bangladesh is extremely concerned about the increasing number of deaths of Bangladeshi nationals in the border areas," BGB DG Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam said at a press briefing organized at the end of the June 12-15 conference at BGB's Pilkhana headquarters on Saturday (Jun 15).
However, BSF DG KK Sharma was unwilling to call them border killings and instead tried a new label "unexpected deaths."
"We are also gravely concerned about the deaths on the borders," Sharma said. "However, they cannot be called border killings; they are unexpected deaths."
He said: "When smugglers try to cross the border, they sometimes use firearms, forcing us to fire back. Even then, we use non-lethal weapons."
The BSF director general claimed Bangladeshi nationals are not the only ones to lose their lives on the borders, as a number of Indian civilians have also died.
"We are working our best to reduce the number of these deaths to zero," he said.
When asked whether the source of illegally smuggled drug yaba could be in India, Sharma said his country has no part to play in its production.
"A third country must be supplying them," he said. "We are constantly monitoring these issues."
Praising BGB's role against groups of Indian insurgents, the BSF director general sought BGB's cooperation in uprooting any Indian insurgent groups that might be sheltering inside Bangladesh.
BGB's DG said Bangladesh had never harboured any criminal groups or enemies of other states on its grounds. "Our government has a zero-tolerance policy. We will provide all cooperation to BSF in this regard."