Why Bangladesh is pushing back at India on spate of border killings

On the night of September 1, Swarna Das, a 14-year-old student from Bangladesh, was waiting to cross the border and enter Tripura.

She and her 40-year-old mother had paid 5,000 Bangladeshi taka, approximately Rs 3,500, to agents who said they would help them cross over, the teenager’s brother, Pintu Das, told Scroll.

“They wanted to meet our uncle who lives across the border in Tripura’s Dharmanagar town,” said Pintu Das. The family lived in Kalnigarh village in Bangladesh’s Moulvibazar district – 60 km from Tripura.

His mother did not want to cross the border under cover of darkness. “But the agents insisted that they cross the border at night,” he said. “When they approached the barbed wire fence, my mother and sister shouted and asked the people on the other side not to fire. However, the BSF [Border Security Force] personnel may not have understood their language and opened fire.”

A bullet hit Swarna and her body was taken away by the Border Security Force personnel. “My mother was rescued by the agents, but she does not remember how she was saved,” recounted Pintu Das.

Several media reports, quoting unidentified Indian officials, said that the 14-year-old was shot dead by the Border Guard Bangladesh while trying to enter India without documents. However, Swarna Das’s family members said she was hit by a bullet from the Indian side. “Maa told me that she saw the bullets coming from across the border. The BSF did not give any warning. It was total darkness,” Pintu Das told Scroll.

Eight days later, another 14-year-old, Jayanta Kumar Singh, was allegedly shot by BSF personnel while trying to cross the border into West Bengal with his father.

According to Dhaka-based human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra, at least 18 Bangladeshi citizens have been killed by the BSF till September this year. The number was 28 in 2023, 23 in 2022 and 16 in 2021.

Since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August, eight people have been killed on the border while allegedly trying to enter India, according to human rights organisations in Bangladesh and India. The dead included two Hindus, though none of them were reported to be fleeing persecution.

Several Bangladeshi citizens, including supporters of Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League, have reportedly tried to cross over to India fearing reprisal after her flight from Dhaka.

The situation on the border has become riskier, said activists. “If anyone tries to cross the border, they are being shot,” said Kirity Roy, secretary of a Calcutta-based organisation that has investigated alleged excesses by the BSF in the border areas in West Bengal. “If they wear lungi [a garment worn by several Muslim men] , the probability [of getting shot] is higher. This is becoming the norm.”

While border killings have always been a point of contention between the two countries, the new government in Bangladesh appears to be pushing back more strongly.

It has formally lodged three protests with New Delhi since August 5, protesting against the indiscriminate killings and asking for action against those responsible.

The ministry of external affairs has not responded officially to the protests over the border killings. Separately, India has been calling upon the Bangladesh government to ensure the safety of minorities and their places of worship.

A former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka, who declined to be identified, told Scroll that the protests were another reflection of “an anti-Indian sentiment” in the administration led by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus.

Significantly, on September 23, Bangladesh had also lodged a “strong protest” against the remarks by Union Home Minister Amit Shah against so-called “Bangladeshi infiltrators” during his visit to Jharkhand.

Dhaka talks tough

The first protest came from Dhaka on September 5 after the killing of Swarna Das.

In the protest note sent to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, Bangladesh strongly condemned such “ruthless acts”. It said that border killings were in violation of the provisions of the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities, 1975.

“Any national of either country entering each other’s territory without valid documents may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the respective country [but] under no circumstances should they be subjected to torture and death,” the statement read.

Five days later, Dhaka shot off another note to the Indian High Commission asking India to investigate all border-related killings, identify those responsible and bring them to justice.

A third note was sent on October 9 after the killing of a Cumilla resident on the border. The Border Security Force had called the deceased an armed “drug smuggler”, who was shot while trying to push contraband goods into India.

Diplomatic relationships between India and Bangladesh have been rocky since August 5, as India is perceived to be a long-time backer of the ousted Sheikh Hasina government. The former prime minister fled to New Delhi from Dhaka as protests swept the country – and continues to remain in the national capital.

“The relationship is under some strain because both at the level of public and the Bangladesh government, fingers have been pointed at Indians for supporting Sheikh Hasina,” the former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka said.

India’s position over the years on the border killings has been to assure Bangladesh that they will not recur, and urging the BSF to be more careful. “We have been defensive and despite the promises, the killings continue,” the former high commissioner said.

He pointed out that the issue is complicated – there are occasions when smugglers attack the BSF with lethal weapons. “At that moment, they have to defend themselves. But you can’t justify the killings of 12-13-year-old children.”

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, another former high commissioner to Bangladesh, however, said the BSF action was directed against a cartel of smugglers, who have political clout in Bangladesh. He also attributed the killings to greater vigilance on the border after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.

“Security was heightened and when people tried to cross over, they must have been challenged and shot,” Chakravarty said. “Shooting them acts as a deterrent. It conveys a warning to potential smugglers and infiltrators.”

A BSF official posted in Meghalaya also told Scroll that the border was on a higher alert. “We have become more vigilant since the unrest and change in political situation in Bangladesh.”

Over the months, many Bangladeshis have tried to cross after they escaped from unrest and killings, the official said. He referred to the discovery of a decomposed body of an Awami League leader from Bangladesh on August 26 in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district.

BSF officials told Scroll that they resort to firing “only in cases of self-defence.”

“The incidents of shooting occur when a large number of people come with agents and attempt to infiltrate the border, sometimes attacking our personnel,” said Ravi Gandhi, additional director-general of BSF’s eastern command. “At that time, in self-defence, our personnel open fire.”

A long border

The India-Bangladesh border is one of the longest borders in the world, with five Indian states – Assam, West Bengal, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Tripura – sharing a boundary with the neighbour.

The residents living along both sides of the border share close ties, stemming from similar languages, cultural lineages, and family connections. However, this close relationship has also facilitated both legal and illegal trade between communities on either side.

For decades, the border has made headlines for smuggling – of cows, counterfeit notes and even cough syrup – illegal immigration, cross-border terrorism, and human rights violations.

“Citizens from both sides are involved in illegal trade, especially of essential commodities,” said Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir, senior coordinator at Ain o Salish Kendra, in an interview with Scroll. “The Indian government has tried to control this illegal trespass, and since then, the shootings have started.”

According to Roy, from the Calcutta-based organisation that has investigated alleged excesses by BSF in the border areas in West Bengal, “the killings have increased under the Narendra Modi government”.

In 2019, Roy’s Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha helped the Human Rights Watch to publish a 81-page report on the border situation. The report alleged that over 900 Bangladeshi nationals had been killed by the BSF between 2000 and 2010, many of them when they crossed into Indian territory for cattle rustling or other smuggling activities.

Activists from both sides of the border alleged that the BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh are “corrupt forces”. “People from both sides – security officials and civilians – are involved in the smuggling,” said Roy. “Political leaders irrespective of parties, the state police, BSF and excise officials, and smugglers are all part of a nexus.”

A resident of a border village in Naogaon District of northern Bangladesh, which shares a border with West Bengal’s Dinajpur, agreed.

“We have seen over the years that the illegal crossing and trade occurred with the help of both sides,” the border resident said. “It is an open secret.”

Roy claimed that the number of meetings between the border forces to defuse tensions has come down since the change of government in Bangladesh. “India trusted the Hasina government more.”

Kabir, the activist from Bangladesh, said that those who have been killed over the years often belong to poor and marginalised groups. “They are not caught with weapons and pose no threat to security, as they primarily enter India for trade,” he said.

He argued for less use of force by the BSF. “Indian authorities should apprehend and arrest those who illegally enter India under existing laws, and punish them through the courts. This would at least save their lives.”