BANGLADESHIS coming to be shot, abducted or tortured in the frontiers has remained a prickly issue with India. India鈥檚 Border Security Force, as Human Rights Support Society said in a statement on March 10, has killed 305 Bangladeshis and wounded 282 more in the border in a decade. The statement says that Indian guards killed 26 Bangladeshis and wounded 25 in 2025. The Indian border guards killed 47 Bangladeshis in 2024, the statement said. Whilst such border issues have so far mostly happened with the involvement of the Border Security Force, some incidents are reported to have taken place earlier with the involvement of Myanmar鈥檚 Border Guard Police. But in recent years, the armed ethnic group Arakan Army, which is by now reported to have taken control of almost four-fifths of the area of the Rakhine state from Myanmar鈥檚 junta forces, has shot and abducted Bangladeshis. In the latest turn of events, the Arakan Army is reported to have abducted three Bangladeshis, who went fishing in the River Naf, and shot at two others, who were also fishing in the Naf, on May 12. Both the injured are cared for in Cox鈥檚 Bazar General Hospital.
The abduction of Bangladeshi fishers by the Arakan Army has also been reported in the recent past. The Border Guard Bangladesh authorities in Teknaf are reported to have said in mid-April that the Arakan Army, which has increased its activities on various locations from the Naf to the Bay of Bengal since it took over Maungdaw township in Rakhine in early December 2024, has so far abducted 151 Bangladeshi fishers. Bangladesh border guards could, however, bring back 134 of them by then. The Arakan Army has also seized Bangladeshi fishing boats on some occasions. All such events, involving both the Indian border guards and the Arakan Army in Myanmar, suggest that the Bangladesh authorities, especially the home affairs ministry and the foreign affairs ministry, have somewhat failed to ensure the security of Bangladeshis at times mostly inside the Bangladesh territory. Repeated assurances by New Delhi of ending such border death and the subservient policy of Dhaka towards India have so far failed to end the border menace. It appears that the case of the Arakan Army could also run into the same situation unless the Bangladesh authorities adequately attend to the issues. It is, in fact, already time Dhaka got its act together in this direction.
Bangladesh authorities should, in such a situation, deal with such worrying events taking place in the frontiers with both India and Myanmar politically, diplomatically and physically and ensure the security of Bangladeshi citizens.
