On January 1, 2013 at around 4:30 am Muktar Dai (23), son of Ainul Dai and late Rekha Dai of Dhirganj village under Haripur police station of Thakurgaon district in northern Bangladesh and Mohammad Nur Islam (32), son of Abdur Rahman and Nurjahan of Bojruk village were shot to death by the members of the Border Security Force (BSF) of India.
On January 1, 2013, Muktar, Nur and a few others went near pillar 361/5 S in the border area to bring cows. BSF members opened fire at their appearance. Muktar and Nur got shot and died while Azad Ali of Bojruk village, Mohammad Samad and Raju of Manikchhari village got injured and a cow got killed.
Muktar was a barber and a believer of Christianity. His barber shop was in front of his house. Four months ago Muktar’s pregnant wife Bonna went to her father’s house in Dhonu Chengthi, a Christian neighbourhood in Debiganj police station of Panchagarh district. On December 27, 2012 Bonna gave birth to a baby girl at Thakurgaon’s Rodela General Hospital. On December 27, 2012, in the evening, Muktar Dai told Bonna on phone that he would come to Thakurgaon in the morning of January 1, 2013, to meet Bonna and pay the hospital fees. Muktar went to bring cows from India so that he could pay the hospital fees, said his father Ainul Dai.
Another person who died at the same time due to the BSF firing, Mohammad Nur Islam, was a poor agricultural labour. He worked as a day labourer in lands of other people, as he did not have one himself. He used to earn Tk 120-Tk 150 daily. With that meagre income he struggled to maintain a family consisting of his wife Mosammat Halima, son Momin and daughter Shurobhi. Since they were very poor, Nur worked as cattle trader sometimes to make extra money, said his wife Halima.
It has come to our knowledge that Indian cattle traders buy cows at low prices from various huts around India and gather them in the villages at the frontiers to sell them to Bangladesh. They inform Bangladeshi cattle traders on mobile phones. Since it costs more if cows are brought to Bangladesh by Indian men, Bangladeshi cattle keepers are used to ferry in the cattle in exchange for token amounts. BSF members allow the Bangladeshi men to ferry the cattle from India to Bangladesh in exchange for bribe. In cases when Bangladeshis fail to pay amounts BSF members demand, they kill them.
It was not possible to take statements of those, who were injured in the incident. Azad Ali, Samad and Raju, as they were in hiding to evade Police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
Fact-Finding-Border-Nur Islam-Thakurgaon-2013-Eng (full text in English, PDF)
Fact-Finding-Border-Nur Islam-Thakurgaon-2013-Bang (full text in Bangla, PDF)
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