By Robert Mackey
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:
India’s Border Security Force in Action – Part 8
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.
NY Times Blog for more
Channel 4 report on Indian Security Forces AtrocitiesBright Cove for more
Abuses by India’s Border Security Force; Questions about Media Coverage
Via the New York Times blog, The Lede, I’ve been looking at a number of links regarding India’s Border Security Force (BSF). The starting point for the coverage in the Times was the news in the Deccan Herald that 178 women have, for the first time, joined the force. But the real story The Lede blogger, Robert Mackey, is interested in are the numerous reports of abuses by the BSF, specifically the killing of unarmed people on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border, including both Bangladeshis and Indian citizens. The Lede embeds the following BBC Channel 4 report on the abuses, which is pretty horrifying:
There is obviously a huge problem when the BSF can shoot unarmed people with impunity. But this report by Jonathan Rugman also has some problems, which need to be addressed.
First, how big a problem is it? The numbers are a little confusing. The BSF itself reports 5000 “militants/extremists” killed since 1990, but there is pretty clear evidence that they are under-reporting total deaths (perhaps they simply aren’t reporting deaths of unarmed people at all). For the Channel 4 reporter at least, it was relatively easy to find many villagers on both sides of the border with relatives who had been killed — who were obviously not “militants/extremists.”
That said, there are some problems in the story above, and in Robert Mackey’s blog post about it. One is the inclusion of footage from a “BSF Recruiting video” by both reporters. In fact, you can see the video on YouTube, and it seems highly unlikely to me that “Kashsoldier,” the author of the video, is putting together his various amateur videos for official Indian military use. I wonder why they think his videos are official recruiting videos? Amy I missing something? (Would the Indian armed forces really be using American heavy metal music to recruit Indian soldiers?)
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(The following comments and the above accompanying reports and videos have been submitted by a reader.)
Via the New York Times blog, The Lede, I’ve been looking at a number of links regarding India’s Border Security Force (BSF). The starting point for the coverage in the Times was the news in the Deccan Herald that 178 women have, for the first time, joined the force. But the real story The Lede blogger, Robert Mackey, is interested in are the numerous reports of abuses by the BSF, specifically the killing of unarmed people on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border, including both Bangladeshis and Indian citizens. The Lede embeded the BBC Channel 4 report on the abuses, which is pretty horrifying.