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| India-Pakistan |
| Women Deployed to IndiaÂ’s Wall of Death |
| 2009-08-03 |
| Last Saturday, after 36 weeks of training, 178 women became the first female members of India’s Border Security Force. According to a report in The Deccan Herald, after two more weeks of “specialised tips on advanced combat,” the women will be deployed to help guard the country’s borders. Last week, The Indian Express reported that the female officers will be used primarily to frisk women who cross India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh, but it noted that they will also take part in night patrols. To judge by this recruiting video made by the force, the women have let themselves in for a life of nonstop adventure, almost impossible to distinguish from a Bollywood action movie According to statistics published on the Border Security Force’s Web site, shootouts with Islamist militants along the frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh are a routine part of the job. The force, known as the B.S.F. in India, claims to have killed 4,814 “militants/extremists” since 1990, and captured 11,790 more. During this period, the B.S.F. Web site says 1,375 border guards were killed.* While the Mumbai attacks last November illustrate that India is indeed threatened by militant groups, reports from both sides of the 2,000-mile border fence the country is building along its frontier with Bangladesh suggest that at least some of those killed by the force may have just gotten too close to one of its 80,000 armed guards. There is also evidence that the actual number of people killed may be higher than the tally on the B.S.F. Web site. Last August, Reuters reported that the director-general of the force said that his men had killed 59 people trying to cross the border between India and Bangladesh in the previous six months. The B.S.F. chart records just 29 deaths for all of 2008. Earlier this month, Voice of America’s Amir Khasru reported from Dhaka that the Border Security Force had “shot dead four Bangladeshi cattle traders,” who were between the ages of 16 and 25. Family members said “these men were killed while returning to Bangladesh after purchasing cattle from India.” Mr. Khasru noted that “according to human rights organizations, approximately 30 Bangladeshis were killed by [the] B.S.F. in the last six months.” In 2002, my colleague Somini Sengupta reported that the B.S.F. was similarly active along its north-western frontier: “Those spotted trying to cross from Pakistan to India are shot and killed. Last year, 87 people suffered such a fate and several guns were seized, border officials said.” In the recent, remarkable video report embedded below, Jonathan Rugman of Britain’s Channel 4 News interviewed people on both sides of India’s border with Bangladesh who claim that “hundreds of unarmed villagers” have been killed by the B.S.F. simply for getting too close to the fence. Mr. Rugman’s report also includes interviews with a human rights advocate in India who says that the B.S.F. kills even Indian citizens with impunity and with a former director general of the force, who defends its actions. Mr. Rugman notes that the present border between India and Bangladesh was hastily drawn by the British, part of the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 that The Lede has discussed in the past. Mr. Rugman says that India’s new border fence around Bangladesh was inspired by Israel’s separation barrier. While plans for a fence on Indian territory to seal the border with Bangladesh pre-date the construction of the barrier in the Middle East, most of the fence has only been built in the last few years. In both cases, the division of territory grew out of partition following the departure of British administrators. In March, the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra published a fascinating essay in the U.A.E. newspaper The National on the parallel effects of partition on the postcolonial experiences of India and Israel. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #4 the B.S.F. kills even Indian citizens with impunity shootouts with Islamist militants along the frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh are a routine part of the job. NO means NO dammit. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-08-03 22:24 |
| #3 Thats going to be a mean group of women. Evidence? None. A hunch. Women in the military I served in weren't in good moods a lot of the time. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-08-03 19:22 |
| #2 Perhaps John F. would care to comment. I sure don't know anything much about India.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-08-03 19:19 |
| #1 Note: This is from the NYT News Blog. The opinions expressed are probably worth what you pay for it. |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-08-03 18:05 |