– Dipyaman Adhikary

“Ki korbo dada? Jani to beaini . Ato dekhle ki ar pet chole?” (What will we do sir? We know it’s illegal. Abiding by the law won’t feed us).

This is the confession of a smuggler. He further states, “Are dada amra ki ar bonduk ba boma pachar korchi. Jacche to goru. Ete kkhoti nai.” (Are we smuggling firemarms or bombs? It’s mere cattle, theres no harm in it).

This could be the confession of any one of the 90% of the people living in a village near the Indo-Bangladesh border. If we see the West Bengal map we will find a number of districts where the Indo – Bangladesh fence is situated such as the North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar etc. Smuggling has been widely prevalent in this stretch for several decades, with smuggling contents varying across districts. Murshidabad border is well known for cow smuggling and N-24 Parganas border is famous for Phensedyl (a cough syrup banned in Bangladesh, yet popular for its high alcohol content). Most of the smuggled cows are not from the local area but are brought from Punjab and Haryana. So, the question is how do these cows manage to travel across inter-state and inter-district guards and arrive at the border to be smuggled across? The cost of each cow is between 5000—7000 INR. After delivery into Bangladesh, the price of the same cow will go upto anywhere between 17,000 to 20,000 INR as it is is exported to Saudi Arabia. With 200-250 cows getting smuggled across the Indo-Bangladesh border on any given day, one can easily imagine the extent of profit to be made.

Two kinds of people participate in smuggling. One, those few who arrange for the cows to be brought to the border from different states, have connections with both state police and the border forces, make away with the maximum amount of profit to be generated and are never found at the border when their cows cross them.

The second group, larger in number, paid 500 rupees to take a bunch of cows across the border safely and to come back, consists entirely of the villagers on the border. Since 1970s, these villages have been victim of river erosion where the changing course of the rivers leaves the villagers with no agrarian land and often their homesteads too get destroyed. Even though the number of documented hunger deaths in the region is the highest in West Bengal, they hardly ever get any assistance from the government schemes and programmes. . These villagers have two potentially feasible livelihood options: one is to migrate to Kerala, Delhi and other states in search of jobs, but such migration requires a significant amount of money that most are incapable of raising. The second, is to smuggle herds of cows across the border, for a paltry sum of INR 500 per day.

Our organization, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has been working closely with people residing in border areas for two decades now. As mentioned above, the large-scale smuggling that goes on in the region is not possible without active collusion between border forces, state police and the others who control the smuggling businesses. It is well documented that the BSF knows exactly what is being smuggled, when it is to be smuggled and through which ghat (point of crossing) it would occur. However, we often hear and read about unarmed ‘smugglers’ being gunned down by the BSF, invariably for ‘self protection’. Those villagers not shot to death are often beaten up brutally, denied medical help and incarcerated for long periods, for the smallest of crimes. The following is the report of an incident of BSF brutality that MASUM intervened in, where several BSF jawans beat up a villager with complete impunity.

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Sariful Islam lives with his wife Papia Bibi, and minor children, Sahin and Sadikul at the village Char-Majhardiar adjoining the Indo-Bangladesh Border. Despite being extremely poor, Sariful did not get any help from various schemes of the government meant for the underprivileged and has not been enlisted as Below Poverty Line (BPL). He worked as a daily labourer and supplemented his meager wages by being part of smuggling across the border.

On the morning of 24th December, 2013, Sariful was trying to smuggle some cosmetics and bottles of the cough syrup Phensedyl, some distance away from Border Security Force (BSF) Out-Post no.4 under Harudanga BSF BOP. Two or three on-duty BSF jawans of that out-post noticed him with those goods and started to chase him. They caught him with the goods and brought him to the outpost and started to assault him with their wooden batons. Then at about 6.30 am, another (unknown) BSF jawan, of the same outpost took him to Harudanga BSF BOP Camp while beating him severely. Then BSF officials Mr. Abhinan Kumar Singh and Mr. Birendar came up holding batons in their hands and asked something from that unknown jawan, and together they started to beat Sariful again. The victim was shouting and screaming in pain and people living near Harudanga BSF camp rushed there, upon hearing the screams. Among them, Kalam Seikh, identified the victim and noticed the incident of brutal physical torture upon him and he informed Rabban Seikh (father of the victim). Rabban Seikh and Rubel Seikh (his brother) immediately reached the main gate of Harudanga BSF camp but were forced to leave the place. They stood a short distance away from the camp and started to cry, seeing the torture of Sariful.

After beating him for more than six hours, at 12.30 pm, the involved BSF personnel wanted to take Sariful to Raninagar Police Station and ordered him to get in to their car. But he was unable to move due to severe pain. The BSF personnel lifted him on their shoulders to put him into the car. The victim had several hematomas on his legs, waist and back.

On the same day at about 2 pm, the involved BSF personnel took him to Godhonpara Block Primary Health Centre for a medical examination and the doctor issued a certificate to the effect that no injuries were found on the victim, as alleged. After that the victim was handed over to Raninagar Police Station at 3 pm and a complaint was lodged against him. Based on this complaint the police registered one criminal case vide Raninagar Police Station Case No. 751/2013 dated 24.12.2013 (G.R. no. 3932/2013) under sections 188/379/411/414 Indian Penal Code and under section 12 of Passport Act and section 227 (b) (ii) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The victim was also tagged in another old pending criminal case vide Raninagar Police Station Case No. 685/2013 dated 16.11.2013 (G.R. no.3566/2013) under sections 143/188/379/411/413/414/333/307 of Indian penal Code and section 27 (a) (b) (ii) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act. It is relevant here to mention that in the written complaint lodged by BSF in connection with Raninagar Police Station Case No. 685/2013 dated 16.11.2013 (G.R. no.3566/2013) it was admitted by BSF that the victim was subjected to “preliminary questioning”. It is also worth noting that the victim was apprehended at about 6.30 am on 24.12.2013 by the BSF and he was handed over to police at about 3 pm. The police produced him in court on the next day. Such prolonged detention of the victim obviously deterred the victim from having early access to justice and paved the way for the perpetrators in the BSF and the police to manufacture documents that would justify their actions, while undermining the victim’s rights.

On 25.12.2013, the victim was produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Lalbagh. On the same day, one advocate defending the victim filed a complaint in the court stating the brutal physical torture of the victim by BSF personnel and also requested that medical assistance be given to the victim. The advocate also filed two bail petitions on behalf of the victim in connection with the aforesaid two criminal cases in which the victim was implicated. The bail petition was rejected but the medical treatment was allowed. Sariful was then sent to Lalbagh Sub-Correctional Home for judicial custody till next production in the court. On 22.01.2014, he got bail.

On the same day, a fact-finding team from MASUM spoke to an unnamed BSF Sub Inspector from the Harudanga camp who denied that any incident of torture had at all taken place. Protecting the border from unarmed villagers and a herd of cows may not be a very difficult task if the BSF puts their mind to it. However, border protection and the stoppage of smuggling becomes an issue only when the security personnel do not get their promised share, or become trigger happy. Often, they claim to have shot at smugglers with AK 47, for self preservation, when the said ‘smugglers’ are 100 metres away, armed only with sticks.

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Till date, MASUM has lodged thousands of complaints to the National Human Rights Commission, and in 17 cases monetary compensation has been awarded to the victims or their families. But never have BSF personnel been pulled up for their acts of violence. Like the armed forces, the BSF too has its own court, where civilians are not allowed. In case of complaints, personnel accused of willful brutality, are rarely awarded the maximum punishment of suspension. At the most, a BSF jawan accused of murder, will be transferred to another border, or else, the victim is given some monetary compensation.

The discourse against smuggling does not take into account the poverty and destitution of people living in border areas who are forced to take part in it, neither does it question the impunity with which armed forces are encouraged to kill, maim and torture.

Dipyaman works with Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) and can be reached at adhikary.dipyaman@gmail.com.