BANGLADESH

A Border Security Force (BSF) court has jailed eight of its personnel for 89 days for torturing a young Bangladeshi in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, Indian media reported on Wednesday.

The personnel were found prima facie guilty after a court of inquiry was instituted into the incident which took place in early February, a PTI report said.

They can resume duty only after serving the term in BSF's 'quarter guard' – the paramilitary force's version of jail, it said quoting officials of the border guards.

As additional punishment, one of the eight BSF personnel was demoted from the post of head constable to constable in order to facilitate his jailing, since as per the BSF rules, a head constable cannot be sent to jail, an official told PTI.

The jailed BSF personnel are Verendar Tiwari, VS Victor, Dhananjoy Kumar, Anand Singh, Amar Jyoti, Snajeev Kumar, Suresh Chand and Sunil Kumar.

The BSF, widely criticised for killing Bangladeshis along the border, suspended the eight of its personnel on Jan 18 and ordered 'court martial' proceedings against them recently after some Indian TV channels aired a video showing a Bangladeshi man being stripped, kicked and beaten by them.

The video showed three to four personnel, donning BSF-style dark green fatigues, stripping and then beating a lungi-clad man with his hands tied behind his back in the incident that reportedly took place on Dec 9.

Habibur Rahman, 22, son of Saidur Rahman of Satero Rashia under Durlavpur union council of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj, was the man tortured. He told on Jan 19 that he was tortured by the BSF men while returning to Bangladesh with cattle through Khanpur border of Paba upazila in Rajshahi district on Dec 9 last year.