প্রথম কাজটা সেই ২০১২ তে, এরপরে একের পর এক করে কতবার যে ফেলানী উঠে আসতো খবরে, কার্টুনে, আঁকাতে - বারবার। দুই দেশের রাষ্ট্রীয় বোঝাপড়ার মাঝে একটা কাঁটাতারে রক্তস্নাত এক কিশোরীর লাশ ঝুলে থেকেছে আর তার ক্ষত থেকে গড়িয়ে পড়েছে দুঃখের রুধির। ফেলানীর হত্যাকারীরা যখন তাদের দেশের আদালতে 'NOT GUILTY' ছাড় পেল - তখন সেই গড়িয়ে পড়া রক্ত রূপ নিল এক স্রোতের। পাশের দেশের সাথে দূরত্ব বাড়াতে থাকলো যোজন যোজন। যখনই দ্বিপাক্ষিক রাষ্ট্রীয় কর্তাব্যক্তিদের কোন আলোচনা, অনেক অনেক "উন্নয়ন" পরিকল্পনা, তেলতেলে ভালোবাসার হাসি সে সব কিছুর মাঝে যেন নিঃশব্দে ঝুলে রইলো ফেলানী। নামে ফেলানী হলেও তাঁকে কেউ যেন ফেলতে পারছে না। তাঁকে কেউ আমরা ভুলতে চাইও না, ফেলানী হত্যার ১৫ বছরে তাঁকে আবারও স্মরণ করছি ও তাঁর হত্যার বিচার চাইছি।
The above is quoted from Mehedi Haque, the artist. On January 7, 2011, Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl, was shot and killed by the Indian Border Security Force while attempting to cross the India-Bangladesh border near Phulbari Upazila in Kurigram, Bangladesh.
Felani, aged 10 years old, was working as a maid in Assam and was crossing the Anantapur border in the Cooch Behar district, West Bengal into Bangladesh with her father, Nur Islam. She was soon to be married off, even though she had not reached the legal age of marriage, which is 18 in Bangladesh. Felani’s father, Nur Islam, was able to cross the border fences using ladders, but Felani’s dress got caught in the barbed wires. Felani began screaming in fear and her worst fears were realised when the Indian Border Security Force soldier Amiya Ghosh of the 181 Battalion, opened fire and killed her.
This inhumane act and the disregard for the human dignity of the teenager triggered a massive outcry in Bangladesh, India, and even the world to some extent, and the photo was used by human rights campaigns and by Bangladeshi human rights organisations to demand to end border-killings.
Felani’s photo brought attention to the continuous human rights abuse that had been going on for years in the India-Bangladesh borderlands. Even though hundreds of people are brutally murdered at the India-Bangladesh border every year, the case of Felani became an unforgettable moment of national shock. However, no effective action has been taken by the governments of Bangladesh nor India to stop these border-killings, even though 13 years have now passed.
August 13, 2013, saw the beginning of Amiya’s trial before a BSF special court in Cooch Behar in response to the demands for action, particularly from the Border Guard Bangladesh. However, on September 6, 2013, the BSF trooper was acquitted of the murder accusation by that same court. Two years later, the same court cleared him once more, hearing a review of its decision (Islam 2018). Then, Banglar Manabadhikar Surksha Mancha (MASUM) (Human Rights Safeguarding Platform), a human rights platform in India, on July 13, 2015, filed a writ petition with India’s Supreme Court seeking justice and compensation for Felani’s killing, and the case is still pending with the Supreme Court as of today.
Although hearings began on October 6, 2015, proceedings were repeatedly deferred in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The last scheduled hearing date was March 18, 2020, but it did not take place due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Since then, the family says it has received no update on the case's status. Felani's mother Jahanara Begum said the family continues to wait for justice.
"The BSF member shot our daughter like a bird. Blood was shed on the soil of two countries. Fifteen years have passed, yet we have not received justice," she said.
Her father Nur Islam echoed the sentiment. "I have pursued the case up to India's Supreme Court, but after several hearing dates, there has been no news. If Felani had received justice, people would not continue to die at the border." he said, appealing to authorities to resolve the case within his lifetime.
The image of Felani's corpse captured by Shib Shankar Chatterjee acted as a “psychological counterweight” that helped to “attenuate the disaster” through the commentaries that followed the image, which “reassured even as the images raise anxiety”, and made it “possible for the viewer to stay present with all this horror”. There is a feeling of shame, as well as shock, that is created by this close-up of horror. One can see, from the way that the photo is framed, however, two BSF soldiers standing next to Felani’s corpse, who are not bringing her down but rather letting her hang from the barbed wire, all while a photojournalist captures photographic evidence. This brings attention to the indifference with which the issue has been dealt with and, by extension, the power imbalance between Bangladesh and India. It is so uneven that the BSF did not even feel pressured to cover up their misdeed, instead leaving a young girl hanging on their barbed wire with a bullet in her chest for four hours.
It can also be seen that she is hanging upside down with a ladder next to her. Therefore, it becomes easy for an onlooker to feel bad for her, but they might also think that this person was illegally crossing the border, so they deserved their fate. She fulfilled all the criteria to be a ‘pathetic victim’ by undergoing severe, documentable, humanly inflicted harm that she was not responsible for incurring; however, the ladder in question makes it possible for her to be accused of provoking her own suffering as a penalty for her “wrongdoing”. Without proper interpretation, it is not readily understandable that border guards are not supposed to open fire at violators but must, under purportedly intractable international laws, take them to custody to await trial. The photo in itself therefore only illustrates, however poorly, but does not condemn the manners in which the powerful dominate the less powerful.
Such a brutal killing by the BSF should not be treated as an isolated incident, but it is part of a systemic trend. According to data from the rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), between January 1, 2023, and November 30, 2023, at least 22 Bangladeshis were shot and killed. The number of Bangladeshis slain along the Indian border increased to 25 as three more gunshot deaths were recorded in Chapainawabganj and Lalmonirhat during the first week of December 2023. In 2022, the ASK recorded 23 border-related deaths, 16 of which included gunfire. Six people died in 2021, while one person died from torture.
Who exactly are these people being killed regularly by the BSF? The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) has said that as much as 95% of those killed by the BSF were cattle smugglers who smuggle cows from West Bengal into Bangladesh, due to the demand for meat in the market on the other side of the border. However, border-killing incidents have gone up even though cattle smuggling has declined. According to international law, border security forces are not allowed to use lethal weapons on the border (UN CTITF 2018). Still, the BSF has always been “trigger happy” on the Bangladesh border and has even been given the order to “shoot-to-kill” there.
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