Some border incidents 'distorted’ in media
Says Pinak Ranjan
A former Indian envoy to Bangladesh yesterday said some reports in the media on incidents on the border between Bangladesh and India were “distorted”.
Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, who was the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka from 2007 to 2009, said he had collected the information from intelligence and other agencies after coming to know about the border incidents from the media.
Terming these reports in the local media as “perception problems”, Pinak, at a dialogue on India-Bangladesh relations at Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation in the city, said, “I do not know how to deal with it (the perception problems).”
Currently special secretary (Public Diplomacy) of the Ministry of External Affairs, India, Pinak said media reports have a profound impact on people, many of whom begin their discussions by pointing to headlines in daily newspapers.
His remarks came amid a recurrence of killings of and torture on Bangladeshis on the border by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
Last month, some Indian TV channels including NDTV, aired a video clip showing a Bangladeshi being beaten up by some BSF members in Murshidabad district, Paschimbanga.
The BSF killed 31 Bangladeshis last year, including 15-year-old Felani, which raised protests throughout Bangladesh, said Odhikar, a rights group, adding that the number was 74 in 2010 and 98 in 2009.
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