By Natasha

Bangladesh and India share the fifth-longest land border in the world. It spans around 4096 km with India surrounding the major part of Bangladesh. Owing to its length and various vulnerable points, both countries experience the issue of illegal migrants and the drug trade. It is a major irritant between both States.

Although borders are usually porous in nature and allow people and goods to be transported between states. But a porous land border increases the risk of illegal migration and smuggling of people and commodities. Such is the case with India and Bangladesh. Both states have their respective grievances toward each other. India blames Bangladesh for sending intruders into the country, while Bangladesh criticizes the Indian border security force (BSF) for indiscriminately killing the people.

The Bangladesh government criticizes BSF for allowing cattle smuggling across the border, and the smuggling of illegal weapons and drugs from India to Bangladesh. While at the same time they shoot the people who mistakenly wander into Indian territory. BSF shoots indiscriminately, without taking into account that not all of the intruders are illegal migrants. Some of them belong to the villages along the India-Bangladesh border.

According to Human Rights Watch, Indian BSF killed almost 1165 Bangladeshi people from 2000 to 2019. Vikram Kumar Duraiswami, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh expressed his discontent over the acts of BSF saying that they are ordered not to open fire on unarmed people. India maintains the narrative that BSF killed all those people in self-defense. In reality, their 'Shoot at Sight' policy allows them to kill whoever crosses the border illegally.

The issue of the porous border is more alarming around the Siliguri corridor. The North-East states of India such as Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, and West Bengal are more vulnerable since they surround Bangladesh. Tripura’s border with Bangladesh is so porous that the Indian forces used to go into the territory of Bangladesh and train Hindu insurgents during the Bangladesh Liberation war. The same forces are now targeting Bangladeshi nationals for crossing the border. The issue is that some people truly accidentally stray into these territories, and it is not possible to erect border fencing in these areas owing to their mountainous landscape.

Indian forces had been carrying out such Human Rights violations with the indiscriminate killings until recently. The porous border situation became less violent as India launched project BOLD-QIT in 2018. Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique (BOLD-QIT) was launched under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) of India. Through this project, BSF installed surveillance cameras along the border and established control rooms nearby to enable quick paramilitary action. With the project coming into force, the Indian BSF can thwart the possibility of illegal crossing, whether deliberate or not.

As a gesture of goodwill, India handed over 577 intruders who had been in custody since 2018, to the Bangladesh Border Guards (BBG) in 2021. Part of the reason was the over-flooding of Indian prisons with Bangladeshi nationals. BSF sent the people back to Bangladesh to prevent overcrowding in its prisons. Again on 1st May 2022, four Bangladeshi fishermen were arrested who strayed into the Indian side by mistake. Their fate is to be decided yet. But, between January 2021 and March 2022, India sent back almost 185 innocent Bangladeshi trespassers instead of killing them on Indian soil.

Bangladeshi grievances are not limited to BSF's killings. It is more about what they are allowing to happen across the border. Trafficking syndicates are operating on both sides and cooperating across the border. Innocent women are trafficked from Bangladesh and forced to work in Indian brothels, yet the BSF cannot stop that. The illegal narcotics trade, for which India blames Bangladesh and vice versa, has also been possible because of BSF's negligence. Even the arms from India have been smuggled to Bangladesh illegally, which is an even more alarming situation.

The issue is highly volatile for India-Bangladesh relations and a major irritant. Bangladesh shares much of its land border with India. It needs to have a better Border security framework of its own to restrict the flow of narcotics and arms to its territory. Although India is to be blamed for massive killings alongside the border, it is Bangladesh's negligence as well. It has to stop the illegal movement of its nationals into India.

Since border fencing is not an option for such a long border, Bangladesh can launch a project similar to BOLD-QIT to minimize the issue significantly. This problem will always be looming over both the states unless they devise a joint mechanism of patrolling on their respective sides. Issues like these can be resolved on the table instead of on the battlefield. For that, India has to keep its BSF in check for carrying out search acts of violence against innocent people and Bangladesh needs to be more vigilant.