India’s Border Security Force shot dead a Bangladeshi man along the Dhabolguri border while he was allegedly attempting to cross into the country on Wednesday, a Border Guard Bangladesh official was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.
The man, identified as 41-year-old Ali Hossain, allegedly crossed the international border at night and entered about 500 metres into the Indian territory, said Bangladeshi Lieutenant Colonel Syed Fazle Munim, quoting a phone conversation with the Border Security Force.
Munim added that Hossain was with seven to eight other Bangladeshi nationals who had allegedly attempted to cut the barbed-wire fence when India’s 156 BSF battalion fired a round of blank shots to disperse them, reported The Daily Star.
As they did not disperse, the Indian security forces opened fire and one man was shot while the others fled, Munim was quoted as saying.
The BSF took Hossain to hospital, where he was declared dead, the Bangladeshi official added.
“The body is currently at a hospital in India,” Munim said. He added that preparations were underway to bring the body to Bangladesh.
The incident was reported amid Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s visit to India. This is the first high-level bilateral visit from Bangladesh since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party formed the government in February.
In December, the Union home ministry told Parliament that the India-Bangladesh border recorded the highest number of infiltration attempts and arrests among the country’s land borders.
Data shared by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai showed that 1,104 infiltration attempts were detected along the 4,096.7-km India-Bangladesh border between January and November, while 2,556 persons were arrested for allegedly attempting to enter India without documents during the same period.
Since 2014, security agencies have detected more than 8,500 infiltration attempts across India’s borders and arrested over 20,800 infiltrators, with the India-Bangladesh border accounting for the bulk of these cases.
Between 2014 and 2024, more than 7,528 infiltration attempts and 18,851 arrests were recorded along the Bangladesh border alone, according to the government data.
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