Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud said on Wednesday that both the governments of India and Bangladesh had goodwill and sincerity to bring down the border killings.
‘We have discussed the border killing issue in detail. We have put emphasis on the use of non-lethal weapons in the meeting with the Indian foreign secretary,’ Hasan told reporters at his Segunbagicha office after a meeting with India’s external affairs secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
The Indian external affairs secretary, who arrived on a two-day visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday evening, paid a courtesy visit to the Bangladesh foreign minister at the foreign ministry.
The foreign minister said that the border forces of both countries were instructed to use non-lethal weapons, and they were ‘following the instructions.’
He, however, said that non-lethal weapons act like lethal weapons when they are used in close proximity.
Hasan said they had also discussed people-to-people connectivity between the two neighbours.
‘We have sought cooperation from India to import hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan through Indian territory,’ he said.
Two Bangladeshi youths were shot dead by BSF at the Tetulia border in Panchagarh in the early hours of Wednesday.
The latest incident of border killings took place hours before the arrival of India’s foreign secretary Kwatra.
Human Rights Support Society, in a statement on Wednesday, reported that the BSF killed at least 13 Bangladeshis and injured 10 others between January 1 and May 8.
