FELANI MURDER Indian rights group for compensating family

This Star photo taken on January 7, 2011 shows Felani Khatun’s body hangs on a barbed wire fences at Anantapur border point in Phulbari upazila of Kurigram.

A human rights group in Indian state of West Bengal is working on filing a writ petition seeking compensation for the family of Bangladeshi girl Felani Khatun who was shot dead by the BSF when she was trying to cross a border Kurigram.

The rights group Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) would be filing the petition before the Supreme Court seeking compensation for the victim’s family as well as punishment for the BSF constable Amiya Ghosh, lone accused of fatally shooting the girl, Kirity Roy, the secretary of the organisation, told media persons in Kolkata Friday.

“We are preparing to file a writ petition seeking justice in the Felani shooting case. We have talked to her family as well as her counsel and are likely to approach the Supreme Court soon,” Roy said, reports our correspondent in New Delhi .

Felani, 15, was shot dead by the BSF while she along with her father was scaling over the barbed wire fences at Anantapur border point in Phulbari upazila of Kurigram on January 7, 2011 to return home from India.

The picture of her body, hanging upside down on the barbed wire fence, triggered an outrage in the country.

Ghosh was charged with culpable homicide and the Border Security Force (BSF) had conducted a General Security Force Court (GSFC) trial against him. But the court had on September 6 found him “not guilty”.

However, the higher authority of the BSF did not agree with the court’s findings and have ordered a fresh trial.
Meanwhile, Roy, who was scheduled to visit Bangladesh to meet Felani’s family and collect relevant documents, could not get a visa to the country after the Bangladesh High Commission returned his passport.

“It’s unfortunate. The High Commission, Kolkata, neither granted nor rejected my visa application, simply returned my passport and inexplicably no reason was shown. I had applied for a tourist visa,” said Roy, a frequent visitor to Bangladesh.