Farid Hossain (28), a rickshaw van puller, lived in the village of Sharialjot under Tentulia Upazila in Panchagar District. He had a wife, two children, mother, father and a grandfather. He also had one brother. He had been asked by a local resident Zahir, a cattle trader, to cross the Indian border and fetch cattle but he was not interested. On the day before the occurrence on 5 February 2010, he woke up late in the morning and went out to drive his rickshaw van at 12 pm.
On that day he could not earn anything. At around 8.00 pm, he went to Zahir’s shop where he agreed to cross the Indian border and fetch cattle. Farid, Zahir and 6/7 other persons went to the Kazipara border at 1.00 am on 6 February 2010. On their return with cattle at 2.30 am on 6 February 2010, the BSF raided them and all of them fled. Farid Hossain tried to hide in a tea garden. The BSF used a trained dog to trace him and catch him. The BSF tortured him and then shot him. His body was found to be horribly disfigured and it was obvious that he had been tortured before he got shot. His arms were broken and the bones protruding out of his arm. His left leg was broken and a gun shot was wound found in his right chest.
On 6 February 2010 at 7.40 pm the BDR held a flag meeting with the BSF at main pillar 442, sub pillar 6 to receive the body of Farid Hossain. In the meeting the BSF said that he had been shot and killed and the local Chopra Police Station of India conducted a postmortem of Farid’s body. The Indian authority handed over the postmortem report to the BDR. The Chopra Police Station of India had also filed a case against Farid which numbered 33/10 jointly under section 341, 353 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 25 (7) of the Arms Act.
The Bangladeshi police station at Tentulia did not file any General Diary. They also did not make an inquest report nor conducted any postmortem. Odhikar asked the Tentulia Police Station to give them the postmortem report of Farid Hossain provided by the Indian authority but the report was so hazy that Odhikar could hardly read it.
fact-finding-border violence-Farid Hossain-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
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