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Tensions along Bangladesh borders with India and Myanmar have continued to rise amid repeated incidents of push-in and border killing by the Indian Border Security Force and land mine explosions and abductions of fishermen by Myanmar rebel group Arakan Army in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Although Bangladesh authorities have taken various security measures, India has pushed over 1,300 people into Bangladesh, including Indian nationals and Rohingyas, since May 7 without following legal procedures while there have also been incidents of crude bomb explosions, firing sound grenades, flying drones, and opening fire along the bordering areas in Bangladesh and inside India, according to Border Guard Bangladesh and police officials.

On Tuesday, the BSF pushed 32 people into Bangladesh through different border points in Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Meherpur.

In another development, Armed Police Battalion 16th battalion commanding officer Kawser Shikdar, also an additional deputy inspector general of police, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they identified five Rohingyas, who were registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in India, in Teknaf area on Tuesday.

He said that the five Rohingyas were pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF through a border point in Panchagrah. 

Meanwhile, the Arakan Army has taken control of about 85-90 per cent of the border points along Bangladesh while the Myanmar government’s presence along Bangladesh borders has shrunk drastically, according to members of the BGB and security agencies.

The Arakan Army has kept capturing Bangladeshi fishermen and Bangladeshi people have been losing their organs due to mine explosions while the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Rohingya insurgent group, and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation have become more active at camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar, which are sheltering forcibly displaced people from Myanmar, according to experts and BGB officials.

Security and conflict experts, too, said that Bangladesh borders along India and Myanmar remained tense, with the tension rising in recent days.

Many believe that as the Awami League government was close to Indian ruling elite, border tension with India began with barbed wire fencing following the Sheikh Hasina regime’s ouster on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.

On May 12, the Election Commission suspended the registration of the Bangladesh Awami League after the government issued a gazette notification banning all activities of the party and its affiliated, associate, and like-minded organisations.

Experts also believe that India is trying harder to distabilise borders in Bangladesh more to create pressure on the interim government of the country so that the Awami League is allowed to take part in the next elections.

They said that the border situation had been worsening since the previous regime, but it was not disclosed because of the ousted Awami League government’s subservient foreign policy towards India.

‘Bangladesh borders along India and Myanmar remain tense. It is not possible for the BGB to tackle borders with physical presence. We need to develop technological capacity for border management like other countries,’ Independent think tank Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies president ANM Muniruzzaman, also a retired Major General at Bangladesh Army, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on May 31.

Bangladesh should also use diplomatic and other channels to stop India’s illegal push-in incidents as it is difficult to ascertain what kinds of people are being sent into Bangladesh, he added.

Following the past year’s August political changeover that ousted Sheikh Hasina regime, India has begun constructing barbed wire fences in no man’s land in violation of international border laws and it now continued push-ins and crude bomb explosions, flying drones and firing sound grenades. 

Between early hours of May 28 and May 28 night, the BSF flew drones, fired sound grenades, exploded crude bombs and fired gunshots along borders with Bangladesh and on Indian side along border points in Roumari border of Kurigram district.

At about 10:00pm on May 28, the BSF exploded crude bombs and fired sound grenades in Assam across Chandarchar border in Roumari Sadar union, said BGB-35 Battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Hasanur Rahman.

‘Push-in attempts were continued in most of the places,’ Hasanur told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on May 29. 

He also acknowledged flying drones by the BSF at the Boraibari border point at about 4:00am on May 28.

‘Now the situation is normal. Both sides are maintaining the status quo,’ he added.

On May 31, local people protested at the excavation of a drain in no man’s

land within the 150 yards of the Indian side near Parshuram embankment in Feni district.

BGB-4 Battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Mosharraf Hossain said that they had already held a flag meeting with the BSF and lodged formal protest over digging the canal in no man’s land violating the international law.

‘There is nothing to worry about flood. The excavation of the drain has been going on for the past few days. When the BSF entered the no man’s land, local people got aggrieved,’ he added.   

No end to border killings though the Indian authorities made repeated promises to their Bangladeshi counterpart to bring the border killing to zero.

At least 12 Bangladeshi nationals were killed and 25 injured in BSF shootings and assaults between January and May 25 this year, according to data available with rights body Ain o Salish Kendra updated until May 25.

Five of those deaths occurred in April alone, followed by three in March, one in February, and two in January, Border killings by the BSF have occurred almost every month since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024, except for November of that year.

In the 25 days of May, one Bangladeshi was shot dead and two others were injured by the Indian BSF.

Between August 2024 and May 25, 2025, at least 25 Bangladeshis were killed and 34 injured by BSF personnel, with at least 30 Bangladeshis killed by the BSF in 2024, 31 in 2023, ASK data show.

On June 2, the Indian police handed over the body of a Bangladeshi youth, who was shot dead by BSF personnel two days earlier along the Dattagram border in Sharifpur union of Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar.

Victim Pradeep Baidya, 22, a resident of Dattagram village, was killed in no man’s land on the Indian side of the border. BSF personnel took away the body after the shooting, said BGB officials.

According to Bangladesh authorities, Bangladesh has 4,156 kilometres of border with India, of which some 180 kilometres fall on different water bodies and 79 kilometres on the Sundarbans.

BGB director general Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, deputy director general for communications Colonel Mohammad Shariful Islam and director for operations Lieutenant Colonel SM Shafiqur Rahman could not be reached for comments though they were approached several times over phone.

Approached, BGB headquarters officially declined to make any comment.

Dhaka University Peace and Conflict Studies associate professor Muhammad Sazzad Hossain Siddiqui said that Bangladesh should take measures for stopping push-ins and incidents of border violence alongside addressing them through the diplomatic channel.

‘We could not know the exact border situation in the past due to the subservient foreign policy of the previous Awami League government towards India. But the situation is now worsening as Bangladesh’s incumbent government is trying to stand on its own feet,’ he said.

Intrusions of Rohingyas, abduction of fishermen, opening fire into Bangladesh territory and opening fire on fishermen during catching fishes are major problems along the Myanmar border.

Ekramul Karim Bablu, a resident of Balukhali area of Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on June 10 said that he could not enter his shrimp farm project along the Myanmar border as the Arakan Army barred him and his workers from entering the area.

‘We have to catch shrimp at night but Arakan Army does not allow us to go there,’ said Ekramul.

Mohammad Shahjalal, a resident of Jalpaitli village of Ghumdhum union in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban district, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on May 31 that land mine explosions had become common in bordering areas with Myanmar.

‘Most of the landmine explosions took place on the Myanmar side as many Bangladeshis crossed borders for different business purposes as well as for smuggling and fell into mine traps,’ he added.

He said that the Arakan Army had also recently opened fire into Bangladesh mostly across Tambru border under Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban district.

According to BGB officials, they had brought back 175 fishermen and 27 boats from the Arakan Army between October 9, 2024 and May 16, 2025.

Myanmar and Bangladesh share 271 kilometer borders.