Case IND 271009.CC.VAW
CHILD CONCERN_VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Assault on three girls and threats to one girl’s family by Border Security Force officers / Impunity of the alleged perpetrators
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in India.
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by MASUM, a member of OMCT SOS-Torture Network, of the physical assault on 5 September 2009 on three 12 year old girls, K. K., S. K. and J. K. by Border Security Force (BSF) officers in the village of Char Lalkup, near the Indo-Bangladeshi border.
According to the information received (a fact finding report from MASUM published on 20 October 2009), at 7 a.m. on 5 September 2009, K. K. and two girl friends were playing in front of K. K.’s family house in the village of Char Lalkup, District Murshidabad, West Bengal when they were approached by three plain clothes BSF officers. The officers have been identified as belonging to the Bamnabad BSF Camp, Battalion-191, Company-F, Police Station-Raninagar, District-Murshidabad. They are reported to be Sub Inspector of BSF, Constable of BSF and another BSF agent.
According to the same information, the Sub Inspector allegedly started to slap K. K. on her cheek. When K. K.’s friends asked the reason for such abuse, the Constable slapped and beat them all with a bamboo stick. S.K. and J. K. managed to run inside the house while the BSF officers continued to beat K. K. Hearing the cries of her daughter, Ms. Halima Bibi came out of the house and started to protest while trying to release her daughter from the officers’ control.
According to the same information, Ms. Halima Bibi was then subjected to obscene and sexually intimidating language by the BSF officers. Finally, the officers also allegedly threatened Ms. Halima Bibi and her husband, Mr. Majid Seikh, with demolishing their house, removing them from their village and arresting them on the basis of a false case of smuggling if they denounced the assault on their daughter.
Despite the threats, Ms. Halima Bibi reportedly lodged a written complaint with Raninagar Police Station on the same day. However, the officer in charge only recorded the case in the general diary entry book under n°222/09 dated 05/09/2009 and to date there has been no investigation into the alleged facts and no legal or disciplinary action has been taken against the officers concerned who continue to work in the same duty stations.
The International Secretariat of the OMCT and MASUM are gravely concerned about this serious incident that adds to a series of similar cases of assaults and even extra-judicial killings of civilians, including children, committed by the BSF in West Bengal. In most cases, the impunity of the perpetrators prevails. OMCT recalls that, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is Party, “[n]o child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (article 37 a)). Under this Convention India is also legally obliged to take protective measures, including, inter alia, “for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment …, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement” (article 19.2).
Please write to the authorities of India urging them to:
Please also write to the embassy of India in your respective country.
Geneva, October 27, 2009
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
| Tweet |
English