Strayed Indians Arrested In Bangladesh: Border Force Standoff Signals Strain In Indo-Bangla Ties

An intense row is brewing along the India-Bangladesh border in Bengal’s Malda district over five Indians who strayed into the neighbouring country. 

Unlike in the past, Bangladesh is not only refusing to hand them back to India but has also falsely labelled them "armed Indian smugglers" and arrested them.

Senior officers of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) told Swarajya that the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have adopted a hostile posture and are refusing to see reason, perhaps at the behest of the new dispensation in power in that country. 

The five Indian nationals were engaged by BSF personnel posted at the force’s border outpost (BOP) at Nimtita in Malda to rescue cattle that were being smuggled across the river Ganga to Bangladesh. 

On the night of 17 August, BSF personnel at the Nimtita BOP saw the cattle being smuggled across the unfenced riverine border. The cattle were tied to plantain trunks (which have good buoyancy) and were being taken across the Ganga. 

As is the usual practice, the BSF personnel immediately engaged five boatmen in two motorised boats to retrieve the cattle. One of the boats developed a technical snag after hitting a whirlpool and lost control. 

The other boat mounted a rescue attempt, but both were swept away into Bangladeshi territory by the surging waters of the river. The boatmen were arrested by the BGB and their boats confiscated. 

Senior officials of the 115 Battalion of the BSF, headquartered at Baishnabnagar in Malda, immediately contacted their BGB counterparts, but the latter refused to release the Indians. 

Flag meetings were held over the next two days between local BSF and BGB commandants, but the BGB officers refused to release the five Indians, citing the “current political situation” in their country. 

A K Arya, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the BSF's South Bengal Frontier, told Swarajya that despite several flag meetings held over the past three days, the BGB has refused to hand over the Indian boatmen to the BSF.

“We told the BGB that it would only be fair and in keeping with the good ties between the two forces as well as the two countries that our five boatmen are returned. We told them that such incidents have occurred innumerable times in the past and both sides have handed over each other's nationals. But they (the BGB) refused point blank. This is the first time that this has happened,” Arya told Swarajya. 

Another senior BSF officer said that the BGB was told that since the five were engaged by the BSF, they were deemed to be on ‘official duty’. “We told the BGB that the five had no ill intentions. But the BGB refused, and instead of handing the five over to us, they handed them over to the Shibganj police station in that country’s Chapai Nawabganj district."

On August 20, Bangladesh police paraded the five before the local media and labelled them “armed cattle smugglers.” They are likely to be sent to prison. The Bangladesh police accused them of carrying arms and trying to smuggle cattle out of Bangladesh into India. 

“The charges are ridiculous. They were not carrying arms. And everyone knows that cattle is smuggled out of India to Bangladesh and not the other way around. It is Bangladeshis who are always the smugglers,” said a senior BSF officer.

The BGB’s refusal to hand over the five Indians who had accidentally gone over to Bangladesh is indicative of a new aggressive posture on its part, say BSF officers. 

“The BGB said that the current political situation in the country precluded return of the five. BGB officers then labelled them 'armed Indian smugglers' and whipped up a media frenzy in their country. This gives out a very ominous signal,” the BSF officer said. 

“If this incident is any indication, we can expect the BGB to get aggressive along the border in the future. Border management will become difficult, and the cooperation and bonhomie that had marked BSF-BGB ties till now will definitely deteriorate,” an IG-level officer of the BSF told Swarajya. 

The BSF IGP said that the BGB commanders at the border definitely did not act independently and would have received instructions from their top officers in Dhaka. “Bangladesh’s current political leadership is definitely in the know and has decided to escalate matters on the border,” he said. 

There are indications that Bangladesh’s new political leadership, which is merely a front for its armed forces, will not be as friendly to India and accommodating of India’s interests as Sheikh Hasina. 

BSF officers also feel that the BGB’s new hostile stance arises from some legacy issues. The BGB often offers protection to Bangladeshi cattle smugglers and does nothing to stop incursions or infiltrations into India. 

The BSF’s actions in stopping breaches of the border, including the fence along vast stretches, have often been opposed by the BGB. The BGB, as well as large sections in Bangladesh, have been critical of BSF firing on Bangladeshi intruders, smugglers, and infiltrators. 

The Hasina government had often faced criticism for not being able to get New Delhi to stop firing on smugglers and infiltrators by the BSF. Such firing has resulted in many Bangladeshis getting killed or injured. 

In recent months, the BSF has been using non-lethal weapons to curb smugglers and infiltrators. But that has, of late, resulted in injuries sustained by BSF personnel in attacks by aggressive smugglers and infiltrators. 

BSF officers say that with Hasina no longer in power, the BGB has felt emboldened to assert its might. That’s why it is refusing to release the five Indians. 

BSF officers say that this row along the border portends difficult times ahead. “We fear a return of the pre-Awami League days when the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) — the BGB was earlier known as the BDR — was quite hostile,” said the BSF IG. 

Those hostilities were symptomatic of the testy ties between the two countries before Hasina came to power in January 2009. 

The worst incident along the border was the killing of 16 BSF personnel by BDR at Pyrdiwah village along the international border in Meghalaya in April 2001. The BDR had attacked the border village in a hostile attempt to capture it and make it a part of Bangladesh. 

Though the attack was repulsed, the BSF suffered huge casualties, and relations between the two countries plummeted to a new low.