India is expected to raise the issue of violent attack against Border Security Force (BSF) personnel perpetrated by criminals along the eastern border in a meeting with Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) scheduled in Dhaka next week.
At the next round of bi-annual Director General (DG) talks between the BSF and BGB, the Indian delegation is also likely to raise the incidents of “breach of fence” and entry of Bangladesh nationals through illegal means. Smuggling of arms, narcotics and gold is likely to be on the agenda.
The Indian delegation will be led by BSF DG Nitin Agarwal.
According to data available with The Hindu, since 2018, as many as 204 BSF personnel deployed along the Bangladesh border have been injured by miscreants. “The criminals, who also include their Indian accomplices, use firearms, country-made bombs, sharp edged weapons and also use stones and bamboo logs to attack the personnel. In 2023 alone, 40 BSF personnel were injured. Since the last round of talks with BGB officials in May 2023, 60 such cases of attack against BSF and civilians have been reported,” a senior government official said.
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Non-lethal weapon policy
India adopted a non-lethal weapon policy in 2011 after Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was shot dead by the BSF while she was entering India along the Cooch Behar border in West Bengal. Photographs of the teenager’s body that remained hanging on the barbed wire fence for several hours before being brought down created a huge public outcry in Bangladesh.
BSF officials say that they often came under violent attack by cattle smugglers active along the border and the non-lethal weapon policy was an impediment to their operational capabilities.
The BSF personnel use regular weapons as and when the situation demands but the proportion of non-lethal weapons is much higher among total firing incidents along the border.
Data suggest that 2023 saw the least number of firing instances by the BSF compared to the last six years.
In the year 2023, while 287 rounds of ammunition were fired from regular weapons, those by non-lethal weapons which include stun-grenades, chilly grenade, pump action guns and blank fires stood at 2,924 rounds.
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The guidelines
According to the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities, 1975, it is the duty of the border guarding forces on either side to prevent the entry of armed civilians up to 150 yards on either side.
The BGB delegation will be apprised that since the last round of talks with BGB officials in May 2023, as many as 262 incidents of breach of fence have been reported. Since 2017, a total of 3,090 such incidents have been reported.
While the seizure of cattle along the Bangladesh border has dwindled in the past five years, the number of undocumented people trying to enter or leave India has increased during the same period, BSF data show. Over 8,000 Indians were caught along the Bangladesh border while leaving the country without any documents in the past five years.
Since 2018, as many as 17,637 Bangladeshi nationals were intercepted by the BSF along the eastern border while 3,342 individuals were caught in 2023. The official said the individuals who are caught entering the border illegally are handed over to the police. Most interceptions were reported from south Bengal, data show. Since June 16, 2022, the BSF handed over 535 undocumented migrants who included 75 children to the BGB as a “goodwill gesture.”
India is also likely to raise the presence of the insurgent group — National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) — which is operating from Bangladesh.
