Felani's father to testify in Indian court

Nurul Islam Nuru is going to India with a single demand – death for the Indian BSF members who had brutally killed his daughter, Felani, at the Kurigram border.

The 15-year-old was shot dead by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) at Anantapur on Jan 7, 2011 while she was returning from India with her father.

Nuru had managed to cross the barbed wires with a ladder but Felani's clothes got entangled in them. BSF guards mercilessly gunned her down hearing her screams.

The teenager’s bullet-ridden body dangled haplessly in the barbwire for nearly five hours, though she was reportedly alive for at least four hours after being shot. She had bled to death.

The BSF took her down, tied her hands and feet to a bamboo pole before carrying her away. They handed over her body the following day and she was buried in the yard at home.

The image of her hanging body sent shockwaves across Bangladesh and the international media, while the social media erupted in anger, forcing India to apologise.

ফেলানীর কবরের পাশে বাব ও মা

Over two and a half years after the killing, a special Indian court in Cooch Bihar will start trying the BSF men from Tuesday.

Locals said Felani's father Nuru hailed from Banarbhita of Nageshwari and had been working in New Delhi for 10 years. They were returning to Bangladesh as her marriage had been fixed with a local man.

Nuru, Felani’s maternal uncle Abdul Hanif, Public Prosecutor at the Kurigram judges court SM Abraham Lincoln, Border Guard Bangladesh’s 45 Battalion Commander Lt Col Ziaul Haq Khaled are going to India on Aug 18 to testify in the case.

The victim’s father was satisfied with the progress. “Many saw how they (BSF) had shot dead my daughter. I will tell the court what had happened so that the killers get the maximum penalty.”

Lt Col Khaled hoped ‘justice would be served’.

Felani’s mother was sobbing. “I had dreams about her (Felani) but the BSF shattered them.

“I couldn’t even see her for the last time. I will be happy if her killers are tried,” she said.

It was Hanif, Felani’s uncle, who had brought her body to the village home.

“The sight of her dangling body still haunts me. I will demand justice,” he said.

Lt Col Khaleda and Public Prosecutor Lincoln have confirmed they would testify before the Indian court.

The BGB has been pressing for a trial of Felani’s killers for long. This will be the first time the BSF men will be tried for border killings.

In an Aug 2 media statement, BGB had said the BSF Director General had given the assurance, during a DG-level meeting in March in New Delhi, of trying those responsible for the teenager’s death.

The BSF formed a ‘General Security Force Court’ and asked two witnesses, a lawyer and a representative of the BGB to come to India.

Various national and international rights bodies had pulled up the Indian border force for its atrocities along the porous Indo-Bangla border. Faced with criticisms, New Delhi had promised to provide the BSF with 'non-lethal' weapons.

Deaths along the border, however, continued to rise, despite India's repeated pledges to bring it down to zero.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report last year that the Indian government was not doing enough to curb border killings.

In a 2010 report, HRW had said the BSF had killed nearly 1,000 over the last decade.

On Jun 26 this year, BGB chief Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said the BSF had gunned down 14 Bangladeshis and injured another 31 along the border from January to May.

According to the BGB, 214 Bangladeshis have been killed over the past four and a half years by the BSF and Indian citizens.

Of them, 67 were killed and 80 others injured in 2009. Another 60 were killed and 87 were injured the following year. The death toll came down to 39 in 2011 with 29 others injured. Last year, 34 were killed and 96 others were injured.

A West Bengal-based human-rights group had moved India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) more than once, asking it to rein in the BSF, which it says is making life difficult for people along the border.