A 14-member Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) delegation arrived in Delhi on Monday to hold director-general-level talks with the Border Security Force (BSF) amid an escalating diplomatic standoff between India and Bangladesh over the forcible “push-ins” of suspected Bangladeshi nationals.
India has not officially mentioned its alleged push-in policy in the agenda for the four-day talks. Dhaka, however, on Sunday said the issues of push-ins by India and border killings would be discussed at the meeting between the heads of the two countries’ border-guarding forces.
In its statement, the BSF said the conference was being organised to discuss “border-related issues and for better coordination between both border-guarding forces".
Discussions will be held, the statement said, on preventing the assault of BSF personnel and Indian civilians by Bangladesh nationals, trans-border crimes, entry of Bangladesh criminals into India, and breach of the frontier fence by Bangladesh nationals. The talks will also include fence construction, action against Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh and issues related to border infrastructure.
The Bangladeshi delegation for the four-day conference is led by the BGB chief, Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, while the Indian team is headed by BSF DG Praveen Kumar.
The Narendra Modi government’s detect-detain-deport policy on “infiltrators”, involving the summary expulsion of illegal immigrants into Bangladesh without bothering with legal or diplomatic niceties, has sparked intense diplomatic friction and drawn a firm protest from Dhaka over the “push-in” policy. The move has also triggered allegations of human rights violations and the victimisation of genuine Indian citizens.
Last month, Dhaka formally told New Delhi that any forced, unilateral pushback was a violation of territorial sovereignty and that repatriation must involve diplomatic channels and verified nationality processes.
“The situation on the frontier, bilateral cooperation and particularly the issue of illegal push-ins will be placed with importance (by the BGB),” Bangladesh home minister Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters in Dhaka on Sunday.
Since last year, the BSF has reportedly pushed into Bangladesh large numbers of “infiltrators”, particularly from BJP-ruled Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra.
Sources said that unlike deportation procedures, no request was being sent from the external affairs ministry to Dhaka for confirmation of the suspects’ Bangladeshi nationality and the issuance of travel permits if the suspects had no passport.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,096km-long border that runs through Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram.