South Ramkhana is a village at the Bangladesh border under Naggeshwari Upazila of the Bangladesh-India border district of Kurigram. Most of the occupants of this impoverished village are either farmers or make a living by agriculture. Due to poverty and a very poor and difficult communication system, most children of this locality cannot go to school. Killing and aggression by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) also cause the villagers to live under a constant state of fear. When he was very young, Nurul Islam left this village in Bangladesh, for Assam in India with his mother, after the death of his father and due to extreme poverty. On 7th January 2011, at approximately 6:00 in the morning, Nurul Islam’s daughter, 15 year old Felani Khatun, was shot and killed by the Indian BSF. According to Nurul Islam, an eye-witness to this killing, he and Felani were crossing into Bangladesh, by climbing over a barbed-wire fence using bamboo ladders, through the vacant space between number 3 and 4 S pillars, which are adjacent to the 947 main pillar of the Kitaber Kuthi Anantapur border. In order to do this they had made a deal with two Indian smugglers, namely Mosharaf Hussein and Buzrat in exchange of 3,000 Indian Rupees. While they were crossing the fence, Felani’s clothes got tangled in the barbed-wire, which frightened her and caused her to scream in panic. In quick response to her scream, the BSF on patrol opened fire at them. Felani was shot and killed, but her father managed to escape. The body of the deceased teenager hung on the fence till 11 am that morning; subsequently, 5 hours later the BSF brought down Felani’s body and took it away. About 30 hours after the incident, on 8th January, 2011, following a flag meeting between the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Indian BSF, Felani’s body was returned to the concerned authorities in Bangladesh. On 9th January, 2011 at about 7:00 in the morning the body was then sent to Kurigram District Hospital by Sub Inspector Nuruzzaman of Phulbari Police Station, for post-mortem. After completion of the postmortem at the Kurigram District Hospital, the body of the deceased was handed over to her maternal uncle Hanif Ali, by the police on the same day. At approximately 10 pm that night, Felani’s body was buried in the back yard of her home.
Felani killed BSF-Fact finding report-2011-eng (full text in English, PDF)
Felani killed BSF-Fact finding report-2011-bang (full text in Bangla, PDF)
[geo_mashup_map height=”200″ width=”500″ zoom=”10″ add_overview_control=”false” add_map_type_control=”false”]
