Bangladesh impedes border fence work at 7 points

Border tensions between India and Bangladesh have escalated since August 5, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India, with Bangladesh border forces opposing previously agreed construction work at multiple locations along the international boundary, officials aware of the matter have said.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has halted Border Security Force (BSF) construction at “6-7 different places” in North and South Bengal frontiers where work was mutually agreed upon under the previous government, officials said on condition of anonymity.

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“Each work was discussed between the two border guarding forces and mutually agreed. The approvals were taken during the regime of the previous government. But since August 5, the jawans on their side of the border are unnecessarily trying to disrupt the construction work,” said an officer at BSF’s South Bengal frontier headquarters in Kolkata.

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A recent flashpoint emerged at Sabdalpur village in Malda, where construction plans were shared four years ago. “It is a single-row fence within 150m of the border pillar so consent had been taken from BGB,” the officer said.

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When BSF began work on Monday, BGB personnel objected, accompanied by local residents. This prompted Indian villagers to gather at the border, leading to a face-off with “sloganeering between villagers of both countries but no violence.”

Indian officials have noted a new trend of Bangladesh villagers recording such confrontations. “On January 7, there was fake news quoting a senior BGB officer about Bangladesh claiming 5 km of Indian land in North 24 Parganas district,” a second officer said, describing how “mischievous social media handles” were spreading “false headlines to defame BSF.”

Despite senior-level communication, the tension has manifested at multiple locations. At Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar, BGB personnel opposed fence construction even after their senior officers had met for cooperation talks. Such incidents reflect a pattern of ground-level resistance despite diplomatic engagement.

The tensions extend beyond construction disputes. Since the political transition, the forces have clashed over other issues, including the arrest of five Indian civilians who accidentally strayed into Bangladesh while helping BSF with a motorboat. “They were later paraded as armed criminals,” an official said.

To be sure, senior officers from both forces continue dialogue despite ground-level tensions. BSF’s inspector general and BGB’s regional commander south west met for an “informal pre scheduled meeting” in North 24 Parganas on January 9. However, despite these talks, BGB personnel opposed BSF’s fence construction at Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar the following Saturday.

The bi-annual Director General-level meeting between BSF and BGB, usually routine, has gained significance as the first such encounter since Bangladesh’s regime change. Originally scheduled for November 18-22 in New Delhi, the meeting was postponed at BGB’s request citing domestic law-and-order concerns. A subsequent attempt to schedule the talks around Christmas in late December also failed to materialize, highlighting the challenges in maintaining regular institutional dialogue.

These border tensions emerge as bilateral relations have reached “an all-time low” following the formation of a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. India has expressed concerns about the targeting of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority amid emerging differences on several issues.