WE are thankful to the Indian minister P. Chidambaram for his expression of regret at some BSF personnel's barbaric treatment of a Bangladesh national. He has also held out an assurance that the offending Indian Border security personnel will be handed harsh punishment.

We noted the Indian media's prompt reaction to the incident and its exposure of the full details of the torture on a Bangladeshi by BSF men as he allegedly refused to give bribe to them. Indian human rights organisations have also expressed their concern over the incident.

All this is welcome because within India there is a growing recognition of the excesses that the BSF personnel have been committing. These should lead to exerting pressure on the concerned quarters to put a stop to the border atrocities.

While we would like to be reassured at the Indian home minister's words, we may recall that despite repeated commitments from the Indian government including the BSF chief, incidents of killing or torture of Bangladesh nationals at the BSF's hands have been taking place from time to time.

Even after the sensational story of stripping and torturing of a Bangladeshi named Habibur Rahman in Murshidabad by the BSF personnel drew world attention and outrage, the Indian border security people did not put a brake on their trigger-happy manners as some subsequent incidents tend to suggest.

After the minister's assurance, we have reasons to hope that the Indian government would move beyond putting the BSF delinquents under suspension and take punitive measures against them.

What is equally, if not more important, will be to take appropriate precautionary measures against recurrence of such incidents in the future.

The instructions from the top must permeate the field level for the desired impact.