BSF fights multiple challenges in securing India-Bangla border

The Border Security Force, tasked with securing India's borders with neighbouring Bangladesh, is fighting on multiple fronts to fulfil its mandate.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Its task has been made more difficult since the fall of the India-friendly government of Sheikh Hasina last year and the installation of the interim Md. Yunus dispensation in Dhaka.

Adding to the challenges is the belligerent attitudes of the population on both sides of the border. And if that was not enough, a bellicose Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, is not losing any opportunity to take swipes at the BSF, keeping her political compulsions in mind, say observers.

Earlier this month, tensions flared along the IndoBangladesh border in West Bengal after a verbal altercation broke out between the BSF personnel and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) over ongoing fencing work.

The incident took place near Sukdebpur village in Malda district when BSF jawans were engaged in fencing operations on the Indian side of the border and Bangladesh personnel raised objections to it.

As the BGB objected to the fences, a section of villagers residing on the other side of the border in Shibganj of Chapai Nawabganj from Bangladesh raised slogans.

Villagers from India also gathered near the border and raised slogans in support of the BSF and demanded that fencing be erected.

A video of the incident that went viral on social media showed a group of villagers chanting slogans like "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", "Vande Matram" and "Jai Shri Ram”.

Villagers alleged that the BGB and the Bangladeshi farmers were working in tandem to ensure that the border remains unfenced.

They alleged that Bangladeshi farmers were crossing over to the Indian side and stealing their harvests.

"The work on fencing has continued smoothly. The fencing is inside the Indian side and we have made it clear to the BGB that the fencing work had been preapproved by both nations," a senior official of the BSF told The Sunday Guardian.