Indian Border Security Force keeps killing Bangladeshis in border areas with the number of the killed increasing in recent months despite repeated promises by India to bring down the killings to zero.
At least 11 Bangladeshi nationals were killed and 23 injured in BSF shooting and beating incidents from January to April this year. Of those killed, five were in April alone, three in March, one in February and two in January, according to rights group Ain O Salish Kendra data updated till April 30.
Border killings by the Indian BSF happened every month excepting November in 2024 since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising in the year, when she fled to India, the statistics show.
In a four-day director general-level conference of Bangladeshi and Indian border forces on February 17鈥�20 in New Delhi, the Border Guard Bangladesh director general, Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, once again urged his Indian counterpart, Daljit Singh Chawdhary, to bring down the border killings to zero.
During the two months following the DG-level border conference, eight Bangladeshis were killed by the BSF along Indian borders, three of them in March and the five others in April.
Experts, however, pointed to Bangladesh鈥檚 subservient foreign policy towards India and India鈥檚 鈥榤uscle power鈥� and the 鈥榖ig-brother鈥� attitude of the neighbouring country for the heinous international crime.聽
Human rights activist Nur Khan Liton said killing of Bangladeshi people by the BSF is a longstanding problem.
鈥業 want to cite two major obstacles to containing border killings: one is Bangladesh鈥檚 subservient foreign policy towards India and the other is the [uneven] muscle power between the two countries,鈥� said Nur Khan.
Mentioning the repeated Indian commitments to bring down the number of border killings to zero, he said, 鈥楳eetings and conferences would not stop border killings as we don鈥檛 even see a decrease in the number [of border killings] despite repeated promises to reduce it to zero.鈥�
Asked about the sudden rise in border killings in April following the BGB-BSF DG-level talks, BGB director for Operations Lieutenant Colonel SM Shafiqur Rahman, however, declined to make any comment.
Home adviser retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury was also approached for comment through his assistant private secretary, but he, too, did not respond.聽
At least 30 Bangladeshis were killed by the BSF during 2024 against 31 killed during 2023, ASK data show.
From August, 2024 till April, 2025, at least 24 Bangladeshis were killed and 32 injured.
Following the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina regime in August, 2024, two people were killed by the BSF in August, two in September, three in October, none in November and six in December.聽聽
On April 8, a Bangladesh national was beaten to death allegedly by the Indian BSF along the zero line of the border adjacent to Sejamora village under Bijoynagar upazila in Brahmanbaria district.
Victim Murad Hossain, 36, was found unconscious and in a critical condition by local people near the border.
He was later taken to Brahmanbaria General Hospital at about 9:30pm the same day when doctors declared him dead.
Murad Hossain鈥檚 nephew Hasibur Rahman said that he had gone to see his paddy field along the Indian border and BSF members beat him up severely.
鈥楴o case was filed in this connection and the administration, too, did not help us in this regard,鈥� Hasibur told 抖阴精品.
BSF members shot Bangladeshi youth Al-Amin at Putia border under Kasba upazila in the evening of February 28 allegedly suspecting him as a smuggler and he died at a hospital in India two hours later.
On April 27, Indian Border Security Force reportedly shot to death Bangladeshi national Obaidur Rahman, 37, in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India.
Obaidur Rahman, son of Hanif Mondol, was from Gopalpur village in Maheshpur upazila of bordering Jhenaidah district.
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told 抖阴精品 that the Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has somewhat stepped away from Bangladesh鈥檚 subservient foreign policy towards India to gain some semblance of a free foreign policy following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime and this government has lodged strong protests on some issues.
鈥楾here are tensions between the two countries and tensions have increased recently, which might be due to a communication gap on the diplomatic channel. Bangladesh should work to reduce the communication gap,鈥� he said.
He, however, also blamed the BSF culture of showing its superiority along Bangladesh borders.
On May 2, the BSF picked up two Bangladeshis from Patgram border in Lalmonirhat after the BGB and the BSF had exchanged two detainees after a flag meeting in Biral border area in Dinajpur.
The exchange took place after Bangladeshi locals picked up two Indian nationals protesting over the incident.聽聽
In another incident on the same day, a Bangladeshi youth was critically injured as the BSF opened fire targeting him along Maheshpur border in Jhenaidah district.
In the BGB-BSF DG-level conference, the BGB has pressed for joint inspections and joint records of discussion by engaging representatives of both sides for the construction by the Indian BSF of any permanent structure or barbed wire fences in the 150 yards of no-man鈥檚-land along the border.
In mid-January, the interim government urged India to refrain from causing any provocative actions amid growing tensions along the border over the BSF constructing barbed wire fences, violating the international law at five points in the bordering districts of Chapainawabganj, Lalmonirhat, and Naogaon, prompting both sides to deploy additional forces on their respective sides.
On January 12, the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma to its office in Dhaka to express its concern over India鈥檚 construction of barbed wire fences along the border and to protest at the recent killing of a Bangladesh national by the BSF in border area.
On January 18, Indian villagers clashed with Bangladeshis over harvesting crops on the no-man鈥檚 land along the Chowka border in Chapainawabganj, leaving three people injured.
Video footage of the clash showed the firing of teargas shells and sound grenades at the spot.
Following the incident, home affairs adviser retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on January 20 declared that they had allowed the Border Guard Bangladesh to procure non-lethal weapons like sound grenades and teargas shells.
India has already constructed barbed wire fences along 3,271 kilometres of the 4,156km border shared by the two neighbours, according to Bangladesh authorities.
From January 2009 to November 2024, the BSF reportedly killed 588 Bangladeshis and injured 773 Bangladeshis, according to rights body Odhikar.
