Ground Report: Unfenced Indo-Bangla Border, Aggressive Bangladesh Border Guards, And Smugglers & Traffickers

The Kodalia river, like many others of its ilk, knows no man-made boundaries and flows freely between India and Bangladesh, entering one country and exiting another in an assertion of nature’s whims. 

The river, as arbitrarily deemed by British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe (who infamously drew the boundary between India and Pakistan), also forms the international border along two of its stretches. 

One such ‘riverine border’ is a 4.8 km stretch of the river along Ranghat, a modest-sized village in Bagdah administrative block of North 24 Parganas district.

The international border or the ‘zero line’ in the parlance of the forces of the two countries guarding the border — the Border Security Force (BSF) in India and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) on the other side — is an invisible and un-demarcated one along the middle of the river on this 4.8 km stretch. 

Though the ‘zero line’ is un-demarcated because it is physically impossible to do so, there are reference pillars on the banks on either side to indicate the axis along which it runs. 

And this ‘zero line’ had been, till earlier this week, considered sacrosanct by both the BSF and BGB. Not, though, by Bangladeshi smugglers and traffickers who had been taking full advantage of this unfenced stretch of the border to carry out their illegal activities.

However, the Islamist surge in Bangladesh amidst the ongoing turmoil has inspired the BGB to adopt an aggressive posture. 

January 7 (Tuesday) saw the new commanding officer of BGB’s 58th battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Rafique Islam, claiming that the Kodalia river flowing along Ranghat lies within Bangladeshi territory and that the international border lies on its west bank (in India).

The BGB officer, who sports a beard like Islamists do, was appointed the CO of the BGB battalion very recently. He told Bangladeshi media that the BGB had “taken back control” of the river and Bangladeshi citizens were using the river freely to fish and transport goods and people.

He asserted that the BGB is patrolling the area round-the-clock using motorised boats and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and that a cartographic document dating back to 1961 validates his claim that the 4.8 km stretch of Kodalia falls wholly within Bangladesh.

That was a patently false claim, which the BSF was quick to point out. "The reports in Bangladeshi media are baseless, irresponsible, and bereft of any truth and merit," BSF’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Nilotpal Kumar Pandey told Swarajya. 

On Thursday (January 9), when this writer visited Ranghat, there were no signs of the BGB officer’s claims being true. There were no motorised boats or ATVs of the BGB in sight, as claimed by Lt Col Islam. In fact, the BGB, a funds-starved force, has very few such resources.

"Those claims (made by the BGB officer) were bombastic and perhaps made for a domestic audience. In reality, we are patrolling the river as usual till mid-point where the zero line runs. Nationals of both countries are also carrying on their activities in the river as has been the usual practice; Indians are sticking to our side of the river and Bangladeshis to theirs. There is no confusion here," a deputy commandant of the BSF battalion responsible for guarding this stretch of the border told Swarajya. 

So why did the BGB commandant make such a patently false claim that doesn’t stand up to even cursory verification? 

“We are witnessing a new aggression on the part of the BGB. The BGB’s recent postures along many parts of the IB (international border) are quite aggressive. Our personnel posted along the IB are reporting a disturbing trend of BGB personnel turning hostile and quite combative,” a senior officer at the BSF’s South Bengal Frontier headquarters in Kolkata told Swarajya.

The top BSF officer, who did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said that this combative stance of many BGB officers and men has been witnessed over the past couple of months.

“Till recently, we mostly had cordial ties with the BGB and there were regular exchanges between us. But that has changed of late,” he added. 

On the ground, the tensions triggered by the BGB’s recent combative stance are palpable. BSF men tell residents of Ranghat to be mindful about venturing too near to the river’s midpoint (the ‘zero line’). 

“There is much more patrolling by the BGB on the river now and while the BGB would gently shoo us away if we ventured too close to their side in the past, they are now more aggressive and point their rifles towards us. And they keep a constant watch on our side,” Narayan Haldar, a trader who runs a small garments store by the name of 'Krishan Bastralay' on the road leading to Kodalia river, told Swarajya. Haldar’s store is a few metres away from the river.

Subir Biswas, who runs a kiosk selling cigarettes, lozenges, and chips at Kulia Nath Para Bazar in the village, says that he has seen a lot of movement in the BGB’s camp at Matila on the other side of the river.  

“The personnel who were posted there earlier have been shifted away and new ones have come in. The new lot is very aggressive,” said Biswas.

Ranghat village, which falls in the Bagda Assembly constituency, has often been the target of criminals who cross the river and sneak into India. 

Labutala, the village in Bangladesh that lies on the other side of the river, is said to be a den of smugglers and traffickers. 

These smugglers and traffickers take advantage of the unfenced and riverine border to carry out various illegal activities. 

“They (the Bangladeshi criminals) smuggle out cows, food grains, cooking oil, baby food and other essentials from India. And the traffickers push in their countrymen, especially Muslims, illegally to our side. All these activities take place late at night or in the very early hours before dawn,” Animesh Debnath, a building contractor who also supplies materials to the BSF told Swarajya. 

What aids the smugglers and traffickers is major portions of the river being covered by water hyacinths. The Kodalia is not a fast-flowing river, and hence it is majorly covered by the free floating perennial plant.

“The Bangladeshi criminals hide amidst the dense water hyacinths and cannot be detected easily. The floating hyacinths are not stagnant and move slowly with the flow of the water. Hence, it is extremely difficult to detect the movement of criminals on the river,” said the BSF deputy commandant. 

“These smugglers and traffickers cover themselves and the cows or whatever they are smuggling out or smuggling in with the water hyacinths and swim very slowly without even making a splash. Cows are also very good swimmers. Only sustained and close vigil on the river for a long time will reveal their movement. But that is humanly impossible,” said a BSF inspector who mans a border outpost (BOP) on this side of the river. 

The BGB’s complicity in these crimes of smuggling and trafficking makes the BSF’s task much more difficult. 

The BGB helps the smugglers and traffickers in exchange for huge sums of money. BGB’s men and officers, poorly paid as they are, provide cover to the criminals from their country to smuggle in cows and essentials from India and smuggle out Bangladeshi nationals. 

“The BGB personnel keep watch and alert their criminals about our movement. It is humanly impossible to guard every inch of the riverine border 24x7. They take advantage of that and when the coast is clear, they help their criminals cross the river,” said the BSF deputy commandant. 

For the BGB personnel, it is not just the lure of money, even though that is a major factor. A BGB constable earns only Rs 10,000 a month while a BSF constable takes home more than Rs 23,000 a month.

While a subedar major in the BSF draws more than Rs 46,000 a month, his BGB counterpart takes home half that amount. A BSF commandant’s current salary is Rs 86,000 while a BGB commandant’s salary is a little over Rs 50,000.

BSF officers told Swarajya that there is also the desire on the part of the BGB to help their co-religionists, especially when it comes to Muslims from that country infiltrating into India.

Ranghat is part of the Bagdah Assembly constituency which was won by the BJP in 2021, but the MLA (Biswajit Das) soon defected to the Trinamool Congress and resigned from the Assembly. The by-elections last year saw the Trinamool’s 25-year-old Madhuparna Thakur defeating the BJP’s Binay Kumar Biswas to bag the seat.

Binay Kumar Biswas told Swarajya that while Bangladeshi criminals had always been very active along the international border in Ranghat and other areas, but they have become bolder in recent times. 

“From what I hear and see, the BGB has become very aggressive. That is reflective of the changed situation in Bangladesh and Islamists gaining ground there,” he said.

Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shantanu Thakur, told Swarajya that though the BSF has stepped up vigilance along the border, the Bangladeshi criminals find support from some on the Indian side of the border. 

“The smugglers and traffickers from Bangladesh have their collaborators on our side of the border, and these collaborators have strong links with the Trinamool Congress,” said Thakur, the Lok Sabha MP from Bongaon. Bagdah Assembly constituency is part of the Bongaon LS Seat. 

It is not just in this sector that the BGB has taken an aggressive stance. Earlier this week, the BGB tried to stop fencing works in Sukdebpur village which falls under Bakhrabad gram panchayat in Kaliachak Block 3 of Malda district. 

While the fencing work was on, BGB personnel and a large group of Bangladeshis armed with sticks and swords tried to stop the work. That stretch of the border has been notorious for smuggling and trafficking. 

The BGB claimed that the fence was being erected in Bangladesh’s territory even though the border pillars provided physical proof that the under-construction fence was 150 metres away from the ‘zero line’ inside Indian territory. 

Meanwhile, a large number of residents of Sukdebpur village also gathered at the spot armed with swords and machetes and started shouting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans. 

The BGB and Bangladeshis retreated. The BSF later conveyed to the BGB that since the fencing was going on inside Indian territory, it would continue and attempts to disrupt it wouldn’t be tolerated. 

BSF officers told Swarajya that the BGB personnel who objected to the fencing at that stretch of the border were accompanied by Bangladeshi smugglers and traffickers.

“The fence will prevent smuggling and trafficking and so the Bangladeshi criminals objected to it. What was disconcerting is that the BGB rallied behind these criminals,” said the top BSF officer at the force’s South Bengal Frontier HQs. 

Malda district magistrate Nitin Singhania told Swarajya that while the BGB and Bangladeshi had created tension, “normalcy has been restored and the fencing work is on.”

There have been reports of the BGB creating minor trouble along some other stretches of the border in South Bengal. 

BSF Inspector General of South Bengal Frontier, Maninder P.S.Pawar, raised these issues with BGB Brigadier General Mohammad Humayun Kabir when the two met at the integrated check post at Petropole in Bangaon (North 24 Parganas) Thursday (January 9). 

Though the official readout of the meeting said that the two sides “reaffirmed their commitment to jointly tackle border challenges”, Pawar impressed upon the senior BGB officer the need for the BGB to exercise restraint and keep a strict vigil on its side to prevent criminals from Bangladesh from violating the sanctity of the border. 

But that urging has, like similar ones made in the past, most probably fallen on deaf ears. More so now that the BGB has, in keeping with the anti-India stance adopted by Bangladesh’s interim government, adopted an aggressive stance. 

The fallout is that the Indo-Bangladesh border has, at least in the South Bengal sector, become quite volatile and active.