Two Bangladeshi men were killed on Friday after the Border Security Force opened fire at suspected smugglers near the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura, India Today NE reported.
A group of about 15 Bangladeshis had entered nearly 200 yards into Indian territory at around 11 pm on Friday for “smuggling purposes”, The Daily Star quoted the Border Guard Bangladesh as having said in a statement.
As they were returning to Bangladesh, a Border Security Force patrol team intercepted them near the border, triggering a tussle during which Indian personnel fired two rounds of shotgun pellets, the statement claimed.
The injured men were taken to hospital in Tripura, where they died during treatment.
The incident occurred near the Kamalasagar-Pathariyadwar border in Tripura’s Sepahijala district, close to Kasba upazila in Bangladesh’s Brahmanbaria district.
The two men were identified as 20-year-old student Mohammad Morsalin and 40-year-old Nobir Hossain, the newspaper reported.
While the Border Security Force has not commented on the matter, The Times of India reported that the unit opened fire in self defence after the group of Bangladeshis allegedly threw stones at the Indian personnel.
The group had been transferring goods across the border fence in the dark, the newspaper quoted unidentified Indian officials as having claimed.
The bodies were handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh, following a battalion-level flag meeting at the Khirnal border area in Kasba, The Daily Star reported.
Lieutenant Colonel SM Shariful Islam of the Border Guard Bangladesh confirmed the incident and said that Dhaka had recorded a protest with the Indian authorities.
The incident was the second fatal border shooting by the Border Security Force in the past month. On April 8, the Indian central armed police force shot dead a Bangladeshi man along the Dhabolguri border while he was allegedly attempting to cross into the country.
Border killings were also among the key matters discussed during Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s visit to New Delhi in April, The Daily Star reported.
In December, the Union home ministry told Parliament that the India-Bangladesh border recorded the highest number of infiltration attempts and arrests among the country’s land borders.
Since 2014, security agencies have detected more than 8,500 infiltration attempts across India’s borders and arrested over 20,800 infiltrators, with the India-Bangladesh border accounting for the bulk of these cases.
Between 2014 and 2024, more than 7,528 infiltration attempts and 18,851 arrests were recorded along the Bangladesh border alone, according to the government data.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar
Also read:
- For Hindutva groups, Bangladesh is the new Pakistan
- The human and economic costs of the militarised India-Bangladesh border
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