The woes of the India-Bangladesh border

The longest land frontier that India shares with any country is that with Bangladesh. Although I had read much about, inter-alia, the "porosity" of the border, my first-hand brush with the real situation was eye-opening in more ways than one.

Being an IPS probationary officer in Malda, I was advised to visit the border from a particular side. This side has a designated Integrated Check Post and is opened for legitimate cross-border trade at designated times of the day. The import-export business is a lucrative one and the govt. seeks to regulate it through issue of special passports, permits, etc. Apart from inspecting the robustness of immigration and customs checks (the details of which should not be disclosed), I undertook a surprise visit to the entire stretch of the Kaliachak side of border. This is the area known to intelligence agencies world wide as a source of smuggling of fake currencies. What I came across was galling.



A BSF Jawan with the border fence

 


The Grade-3 Fencing

 

One of the BSF commanders had complained of inability to protect the border due to withdrawal of orders to shoot at trespassers. I bought the argument then but found it unconvincing when i saw the fences which were reported to be cut. The fences are of grade-3 type (pic shown) with triple layering of barbed wire which would take at least 20 minutes by even the most experienced set of hands to cut. The border, on the other hand, is patrolled by hundreds of jawans with each one's jurisdiction to be 200 meters. The argument was further questioned By the fact that the border in his side was well-lit and equipped with a siren-alarm system. My doubts were confirmed by a police officer of the local thana under whose jurisdiction it fell. Even the thana officials find it implausible to believe that fence trespassing can happen with such frequency in the most well-equipped segment of the border. One can only then imagine the fate of the unlit and un-equipped segments (and there are thousands of kilometers of those). As our car sped along the bordering fence of this smuggling-prone segment, we saw half dressed BSF jawans springing up from their positions to salute, only a few had their weapons with them, the rest were seemingly disturbed from some other preoccupation. It was easy to figure out that the posts had been empty in certain areas and jawans started rushing to their spots when the news of our travel spread. A large number of them couldn't make it and ended up saluting with one hand while they held their cycles with the other. We are talking about the segment of fence which shows seizures worth crores of fake currency and. This is the alertness level at 11 AM.

However, not all commanders are the same. The fences of the subsequent jurisdiction were better guarded and the jawans knew their responsibility more clearly. My interaction with the commander was impassioned as both of us were equally disturbed by what we could see. He pointed out more loopholes, there was a clear passage that marked there thick fence, the passage was an eye sore as it meant that billions of rupees spent on the much talked about fencing is reduced to waste due to that tiny piece of clear undisturbed passage. Similarly there were culverts and pipelines that connected the two sides. This segment of border had no lights or sound alarm system and yet they had stopped three incidents of "throwing" in the last month. Each time they recovered bundles of fake currency and opiates but failed to nab the smugglers.
In this segment, smuggling takes place through "throwing" i.e. The smuggler on one side of the border literally throws the commodity ( usually FICN but at times, even cattle are heralded across through mechanical throws using improvised platforms).


Residents of the village which is divided by the

fence waiting for the gate to open to go to their houses.




As i went ahead i came across a village that was divided into two by the fence. As my trip had official sanction, i was allowed to walk over to the other side of the border with BSF escorts. Somewhere, roughly 100 meters beyond the fence gate, Bangladesh's territory began. However as we walked on in the village (pic attached), even the villagers couldn't point out unanimously where India ended. There is a marking system that uses pillars and pointers but it is more of cartographic importance and clearly didn't bother the villagers. These hundreds of people were rendered nomads by birth. Children went to school in India (i.e. The part beyond the fence) but could enter and exit only during limited times during day. They had ID cards which thr BSF monitored but One can only imagine how easy it will be for an anti-national element to infiltrate the ranks of villagers ( who clearly had no affiliation to either of the countries) and use their card to cross the fence.

The feeling of cultural and familial brotherhood coupled with the lure of easy money made the whole villages on this segment of the border sympathetic to the acts of smuggling. Their primary source of income depended on these regular crimes. Hence they saw BSF and police as their enemies and officers recounted how they had been attacked often by the villagers with countrymade bombs and arms. When i went to the police outpost responsible for this village I was appalled to see that they have only 3 constables and 3 officers and a cranky mini-bus at their disposal, so patrolling of the area spread across nearly a 100km square becomes out of question and only reactive policing becomes the option. The SP admitted the shortfall and acknowledged that it is only the competence of the officer in charge of that outpost that is allowing it to sustain. To the query of why such shortage of manpower and resources is allowed in such a crucial area for national security, he had enough figures to show me how terribly short-changed the whole district is in terms of officials and automobiles. And he extended the argument to all the districts of Bengal except a few "popular" ones.


Inside a border village, I was "probably"

standing in Indian territory when I took this.





I wish i could conclude the write-up on a hopeful note, but there is little help in sight. The conditions of this region are known to all top officials and politicians. Still I wrote a strongly worded report on what I saw. The solution to these problems need strong political will from the top because only that can ensure a radical addition to and redistribution of resources so as to stem the problems from their roots. The petty corruption that exists in the ranks of policemen seeks justification in the crisis of resources and also feeds on the frustration resulting out of futility of their limited uncoordinated actions.

If we have willing police leadership which is given a clear mandate by the political bosses along with the required resources, there can be a day when the borders of Malda are safe and secure.