THE installation of electric poles and searchlights by India鈥檚 Border Security Force within 50 yards of the zero line in the Patgram border in Lalmonirhat appears to be an insidious effort as the Joint India-Bangladesh Guidelines for Border Authorities of the Two Countries, or Border Guidelines, signed in 1975, does not allow the construction of structures within 150 yards from the zero line on each side of the border. The Coordinated Border Management Plan, which was signed in July 2011 and replaced the Border Guidelines, is said not to be different, in principle, from the guideline, but it is said to have made some significant deviations from the guideline in border management principles. Indian border forces of the Fulkadabri camp in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, installed the poles and searchlights, amidst heavy deployment, spanning a kilometre at night on January 30 in breach of the regulation, panicking people living in the area. Protest by a Border Guard Bangladesh patrol team stopped the installation. But, the Indian guards are reported to have ignored the call for a flag meeting between company commanders the next day.
The move at hand of the Indian border guards could well be construed as an attempt at discommoding the Bangladesh government, which is in a transitional phase, especially in view of a series of events have happened in the border with the direct involvement of India鈥檚 Border Security Force. Such events began in the final days of December 2024 with the erection of barbed-wire or electric fences along the border in Lalmonirhat, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon. Tension also brewed as the Indian guards on January 8 began erecting fences in the no man鈥檚 land. Indian forces tried to pick up a few Bangladeshis, harvesting wheat, at night on January 17, resulting in a scuffle, which rolled caused clashes involving several hundred villages of both Bangladesh and Indian the next morning, leaving three Bangladeshis wounded. Given that the director generals of the Bangladesh and the Indian border forces are scheduled to meet in New Delhi in February 17鈥�20, with a focus on India鈥檚 erecting fences at several points along the border, there are ample reasons to believe that the January 30 incidents is part of a series of discommoding ploys of the Indian border forces that is unbecoming. Such events also endanger any efforts for improvement in bilateral relations, which have faced a setback because of India鈥檚 support for the authoritarian Awami League regime, toppled in a mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
Events creating border tension have also marked many occasions of border guard meetings between the two countries in the past. Delhi should understand that such events deepen an anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh. And, this is not welcome when both the neighbours are working to improve bilateral relations. Delhi should stop playing border ploys and Dhaka should adequately take up the issue with Delhi.