India-Bangladesh border

The partition in 1947 resulted in a long stream of refugees. By the first year of partition 1.25 million people had crossed over to West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The second major wave of migration took place after Mujibur Rehman’s assassination in 1975. It created a communal rift that forced many people to move out of Bangladesh and just cross over to West Bengal. 60 years after independence the number of illegal migrants from Bangladesh staying in India is 20 million. With the rise of fundamentalist forces and terror outfits in Bangladesh that simple crossing over often helped by political has turned into one of the biggest security threats in the subcontinent. Our journey along the India-Bangladesh stretch from Hili to Sunderban with people from both sides of the border only proved that real security can only be ensured by increasing the awareness of these people and not just construction of a fence . Then only the checkpoints and the increased battalions can help counter terror.

Borders

The Indo-Bangladesh border has been severely neglected and has been called by many a ticking time bomb. Beginning of this year, I travelled with Our Senior Editor V K Shashikumar and cameraman Debasish Nandi along the entire stretch of the border. Many of the illegal migrants who walk from Bangladesh to India come in search of a livelihood, but there are many among them who are backed by terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the HuJI. The BSF with its limited manpower and not the best of equipment has a tough task at hand patrolling a very porous border. This photograph has been taken by Debasish in the Nadia stretch of the border.