New Delhi: The Border Security Force chief will once again raise the issue of assault on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladesh-based criminals and miscreants with his counterpart during a two-day border coordination conference scheduled next week in Dhaka.
The assaults on the BSF personnel have emerged as the most crucial topic for the discussion between the chiefs of the border-guarding forces as the number of incidents has increased significantly in the past year, coinciding with the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh government 5 August 2024.
“During the course of conference (next week), discussions will be held on prevention of attack/assault on BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladesh based-Miscreants/Nationals,” a BSF spokesperson said.
The matter was also discussed in the previous meeting in Delhi in February this year, when BSF Director General Daljit Singh Chawdhary raised the issue during a discussion with his counterpart, Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, the DG of the Border Guard Bangladesh.
According to BSF data on such attacks across the eastern command, there were just 23 incidents in 2023, which rose more than threefold to 77 the next year. The BSF guards the 4,096-kilometre-long border with Bangladesh, spanning Tripura, Meghalaya, and Assam in the North-East to West Bengal.
This year, the number of such cases reported by personnel in the border area was 35 as of 30 June, sources in the BSF told ThePrint.
“The number of such cases has not gone out of control yet, but certainly the number has not dipped, which was expected after the last meeting between the DGs of these two forces. The onus of stopping such miscreants from their side of the fence falls on the BGB’s shoulders, and they need to ensure that,” a BSF official explained to ThePrint.
The DG-level talk mechanism started in 1993. The one scheduled for next week will be the first in Dhaka since the ouster of the Hasina government. The DG-level engagement generally takes place biannually, alternatively at Dhaka and New Delhi. However, the last such meeting in Dhaka, scheduled for October of last year, was postponed in the wake of the political turmoil in Bangladesh.
The BSF spokesperson quoted above said that other issues that would be covered during the DG-level talks include how to prevent trans-border crimes, construction of a single-row fence, “action against Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) in Bangladesh, issues related to border infrastructure, joint efforts for effective implementation of Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP) and Confidence Building Measures (CBMs)”.
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Measures India has taken
India has taken multiple measures to tackle such attacks and apprehended the perpetrators. The BSF has equipped its personnel deployed on the direct line of duty at the border with body-fitted cameras for real-time evidence gathering and blunting disinformation campaign by the Bangladeshi media.
Around 2,500 such cameras have been assigned to troops as part of the pilot project in the Eastern Command, with north Bengal being the priority sector. The process for allotment of an additional 2,500 cameras is currently underway, sources in the BSF told ThePrint.
“Installation of these body-fitted cameras will ensure real-time evidence gathering and help in countering disinformation through Bangladeshi media, where reports claim mishandling of Bangladeshi nationals by the BSF personnel. These people attempt to infiltrate and sometimes overpower personnel at the border checkpoints, and any retaliation to thwart brings bad press to the BSF. This move should solve the problem to a great extent,” a BSF official told ThePrint.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)