A Little-Acknowledged Peril That Bengal Faces From Bangladesh: Criminals From Across The Border Committing Heists And More

A small news item hidden on an inside page of the Kolkata edition of a national English daily on Tuesday (23 July) cried out for attention.          

The news item was about four individuals being arrested from Anandapur in the eastern fringes of Kolkata on Sunday (July 21) afternoon.

They were arrested because police suspected that they were about to commit a heist on a big hardware store; the four were moving around suspiciously in front of the store and when they saw a police patrol party, they tried to flee. 

Two of the four turned out to be Bangladeshis — Mijan Sheikh (38) and Rubel Sheikh (27). Both are professional criminals specialising in committing heists — breaking into business establishments and deactivating security cameras and alarms.

The discovery of the identities of two of the four would-be dacoits came as no surprise.

Bengal Police, the BSF and other security agencies have often nabbed Bangladeshi criminals who sneak in through the border, carry out crimes and then sneak back to Bangladesh with their share of the booty.

Crime Syndicates and Bangladeshi Criminals

Crime syndicates in Bengal have been hiring Bangladeshi criminals for the past two decades, though this practice has increased over the past couple of years. 

Bangladeshi criminals-for-hire have committed heinous crimes, including abductions for ransom and murders, over the past few years. Few have been caught because they mask their identities, even from their employers (the crime lords in Bengal), and escape to Bangladesh after committing the crimes. 

Since their real identities remain unknown, the police in Bangladesh can do little to trace them down and arrest them in that country. 

The two others who were arrested along with the Bangladeshi criminals by police Sunday afternoon are residents of Nadia, a district bordering Bangladesh. 

Bengal’s crime lords find it advantageous to hire Bangladeshi criminals. A senior police officer who served as the superintendent of police of Nadia and is now a DIG told Swarajya that Bangladeshi criminals are more professional than their Indian counterparts. 

“During my tenure in Nadia, we tracked down and arrested a crime lord who had been hiring criminals from across the international border. During interrogation, he revealed that the Bangladeshi criminals display ferocity and are more daring," he said.

"The crime lord, who masterminded many crimes such as dacoities and abductions, told us that the Bangladeshi criminals do not shy away from brutally handling any resistance from their victims and are thus a feared group," said the police officer. 

Border Security Challenges

A BSF officer posted at the border guarding force’s South Bengal Frontier Headquarters in Kolkata told Swarajya that despite intensive vigil, Bangladeshi criminals find it quite easy to sneak into Bengal. 

“Many portions of the border like the riverine areas are unfenced and it is humanly impossible to keep watch 24x7 on every inch of such unfenced portions of the border. Also, at times, the criminals cut through the fence or use bamboo poles to vault over the fence and enter or exit India. We manage to catch some and hand them over to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), but most manage to evade our vigil,” the BSF officer said. 

“They assume fake names when they come in. And once they return to their side of the border, they simply cannot be traced. They are also more fearless and display a lot of daring, perhaps because they are more desperate. The Bangladeshi criminals are also more experienced in robberies and dacoities and that expertise comes in handy here,” said the police officer. 

Targeting Border Villages

Bangladeshi criminals have been targeting residents of Indian villages, especially Hindus, along the international border. They steal cattle and commit robberies before escaping to their country. 

Indian villages on the other side of the fence, erected 150 meters away from the zero line inside Indian territory, are especially vulnerable. These villages are unprotected by the BSF and police and have limited access to the rest of India through gates along the fence that are opened by the BSF only for a few hours each day. 

The Bangladeshi criminals have, in recent years, graduated from border crimes to heists and other crimes further inland. 

The involvement of Bangladeshi criminals in serious crimes much inside Indian territory came to light in a major way after the March 2015 dacoity on a Christian missionary school in Nadia district’s Ranaghat. The dacoits not only robbed the convent but also gang-raped a 71-year-old nun. 

The incident triggered a nationwide outcry. Leftists and so-called liberals blamed Hindus for the heinous crime. But it later turned out that a gang of Muslim criminals — two of them Bangladeshis — had committed the robbery and rape. 

Since then, there have been many incidents of Bangladeshi criminals entering Bengal to carry out crimes and then returning to their country. 

Last year, police tracked down a Bangladeshi criminal who had committed a string of murders in a North Kolkata locality. 

Lack of Acknowledgment from Authorities

Police officers posted in the areas along the Indo-Bangladesh border as well as the BSF say that these Bangladeshi criminals not only commit robberies and dacoities but often also rape the womenfolk of the houses they target. 

However, the victims, especially if they are Hindus, do not report those rapes out of shame and fear of social stigma. 

“These Bangladeshi criminals are devils in disguise of humans. They are barbarians,” said the senior police officer. 

Bangladeshi criminals are also suspected to have been part of gangs that have committed crimes even in Kolkata. Some of them are believed to be very tech-savvy and can cover their tracks well. 

However, Bengal police are yet to acknowledge the gravity of this menace. Perhaps this is because all these Bangladeshi criminals are Muslims, and under Mamata Banerjee's well-known Muslim appeasement policy, it would be wiser to keep quiet. 

But non-acknowledgement of this grave menace won’t make it disappear.

The threat will worsen, and security experts warn it’s only a matter of time before these Bangladeshi criminals are recruited by terror groups for subversive activities in India.