There are unresolved issues between Bangladesh and India hindering bi-lateral trade and development. Some of the political issues became prominent with the fall of the previous Awami League regime in the middle of 2024. The Indian government continues to harbour top leaders of the deposed regime, despite a damning fact-finding report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on human rights violations during the July-August student-led uprising in Bangladesh. Border killings and repeated push-in of Bengali-speaking Muslim in large numbers further compounded issues of recent concern.
Moreover, international human rights organizations have expressed concern on the issue. Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently asked the Indian government to stop unlawful deportation of people without due process. Instead, HRW suggested ensuring everyone’s access to procedural safeguards to protect against arbitrary detention and expulsion. According to HRW, this crackdown followed a deadly attack by gunmen against Hindu tourists in Jammu and Kashmir in April 2025. Police started harassing Muslims, refused to accept their citizenship claims, and seized their phones, documents, and personal belongings, leaving them unable to contact family members. Some of those apprehended said Indian Border Security Force (BSF) officials threatened and assaulted them, and in a few cases, forced them to cross the border at gunpoint.
However, Indian Muslims are not the sole victims -- Rohingya Muslims have experienced similar treatments. A couple of months ago, Indian authorities expelled about 100 Rohingya refugees from a detention centre in Assam across the Bangladesh border. The OHCHR reported that the authorities had forced another 40 Rohingya refugees into the sea near Myanmar, giving them life jackets and making them swim to shore in what the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called “an affront to human decency.” The UN special rapporteur described the incident as “a serious violation” of the principle of non-refoulement, the international legal prohibition against returning people to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom.
Non-refoulement has been defined in a number of international refugee instruments, both at the universal and regional levels. At the universal level, the most important provision in this respect is Article 33 (1) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which states that: "No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."
Amnesty International made a similar call on the occasion of World Refugee Day 2025. Amnesty called on the Indian government to halt immediately all deportations of Rohingya men, women, and children. Noting the fact that forcibly returning Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar is both cruel and unlawful; Amnesty made reference to the call made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who often emphasized India’s commitment to Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the belief that the world is one family. On the World Refugee Day 2025, AI called upon Modi and the Government of India to stand for this principle by recognizing and protecting the Rohingya as refugees living in India.
Killings along the border and push-ins are big issues while border killings are on the rise despite repeated promises made by the Indian government and the BSF to bring it down to zero. At least 34 people were killed by the Indian BSF by either being shot or being tortured during the first 11 months of the interim government’s tenure, while the figure was 30 in 2024 and 31 in 2023, according to rights group Ain O Salish Kendra data.
Many readers would be able to recollect “trigger happy,” an HRW report published more than a decade ago on the excessive use of force. The report documented a pattern of grave abuses by BSF against both Bangladeshi and Indian nationals in the border area along India’s 2,000-kilometer-long international frontier with Bangladesh in West Bengal state. From Felani to Shukharanjan Bali, alleged involvements of BSF were referred.
The relationship between Bangladesh and India recently demonstrated some silver lining. The arrival of an Indian medical team in Bangladesh, coupled with a symbolic gesture from Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in the form of sending mangoes to the Indian leaders, a symbolic move of diplomacy, certainly demonstrated a positive outlook. The Indian PM recently visited its South Asian neighbour Maldives signaling a thaw in diplomatic tensions that followed the election of pro-China Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu in 2023. Similar reconciliation is possible with Bangladesh if issues like killings along the border and push-ins are addressed urgently.
If the human rights situation is to be improved along the border, then violators must be prosecuted under the law.
Oli Md Abdullah Chowdhury is a human rights worker.