March for Felani: Sarjis Alam vows justice for border killing victims

Chief coordinator of the National Citizens Committee Sarjis Alam has vowed to fight to ensure justice for Felani and other victims of border killings by Indian border guards.

"If any of our brothers or sisters face the same fate as Felani at the border, we will organise long marches targeting the barbed wire, breaking through it if necessary," he said during an event called March for Felani in Kurigram on Thursday.

The long march began at 10:30am from the college intersection in Kurigram and concluded at Felani's house in Nakharganj village of Ramkhana union, Nageshwari upazila.

Sarjis outlined five key demands — justice for all victims of border killings, including Felani, a ban on the use of lethal weapons at the border, renaming a residential building at Kurigram Agricultural University after Felani, abolishing Bangladesh's "kneejerk" foreign policy and adopting one based on equality, river reforms to improve the livelihoods of the char (riverine island) residents of Kurigram.

He called for international trials for all Bangladeshis killed at the border and urged global action to end such killings. "We don't want to see any more dead bodies on the Bangladesh border," he said.

Sarjis also criticised the state's foreign policy, saying, "The new Bangladesh, shaped by the public-student movement, will not accept policies that compromise sovereignty. Any leader acting as an agent of foreign powers will meet the same fate as the murderer Hasina."

Felani's father, Nur Islam, convener of the National Citizens Committee Nasir Uddin Patwary, member secretary Arif Sohel and Zahid Ahsan, office secretary of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement were among those who joined the march.

On January 7 in 2011, Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl, was shot and killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) while attempting to cross the India-Bangladesh border near Phulbari Upazila in Kurigram.