India, Bangladesh Face Armed Border Standoffs Over 5 Migrants on 2,500-Mile Frontier
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 14
India, Bangladesh Face Armed Border Standoffs Over 5 Migrants on 2,500-Mile Frontier
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 14
Summary
Five people — a man, three women and a child — were caught on the Bangladesh side near Durgapur, triggering a roughly 24-hour armed standoff between Indian and Bangladeshi border guards.
India has been rounding up people with Bangladeshi papers or suspected Bangladeshi migrants and deporting them across the border, sometimes at night, while Bangladesh says New Delhi is bypassing formal repatriation channels.
Bangladeshi guards accused their Indian counterparts of pushing the undocumented group into Bangladesh, then blocked their entry and sought to force them back into the buffer zone.
The clash highlights how the roughly 2,500-mile border — long used by job seekers and smugglers moving goods from cattle to gold — is becoming a sharper fault line between traditionally friendly neighbors.