India-Bangladesh border talks in Delhi next week

India and Bangladesh are expected to hold their bi-annual DG-level border talks in Delhi next week, the first such meeting after the BNP government took charge in Dhaka early this year.

Issues related to border fencing, attacks on BSF personnel, checking infiltration and cross-border crimes and handing over of illegal Bangladeshi migrants are likely to be part of the agenda for the talks, sources said.

A delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) led by its Director General (DG) Maj Gen Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui is expected to be in the national capital between June 8 and 11 for the talks with their counterpart Border Security Force (BSF).

The Indian side will be led by BSF DG Praveen Kumar.

India shares a 4,096 km-long international border with Bangladesh, out of which about 860 km remains unfenced, including 174.51 km of the “not feasible for fencing” gap.

Officials told PTI that the BSF-BGB DG-level talks are to be held between June 8-11 at a BSF base in Delhi.

They said that issues related to cross-border crimes and mutual cooperation are expected to be the crux of discussions, as the agenda of talks between the two countries, by and large, remains the same.

A joint record of discussions will be signed between the two sides on June 11, they said.

Sources in the security establishment noted that this will be the first top-level border meeting between the two forces after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was elected to power in February this year.

The last meeting between the two sides was held in Dhaka in August 2025, when an interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus was in power in Bangladesh.

The forthcoming meeting assumes significance as the Modi government, through the public speeches of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has underlined that India will not allow illegal infiltration of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas.

The government asserted that all such people who were present in the country will face a graded 3D action of ‘detect, delete and deport’.

More than half of the over 4,000 km India-Bangladesh border is shared by the state of West Bengal (2,216.7 km) where a new BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has taken charge recently.

Adhikari too has reiterated the Union government’s 3D approach against illegal infiltrators present in the state, even as his government has handed over large tracts of land to the BSF for the erection of a strong fence.

According to government data of August 2025, a total of 1,647.69 km of the 2,216 km border in West Bengal has been fenced and out of this, 112.78 km cannot be fenced as it is non-feasible due to geographical features like water bodies and the Sunderbans mangrove area. A total of 456.22 km is feasible for fencing works.

Four other states share a border with Bangladesh — Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km).

The sources said the BSF agenda points for the forthcoming talks may include prevention against attack, assault, abuse and stone pelting on BSF personnel and Indian nationals by Bangladesh-based criminals/miscreants, joint efforts to prevent trans-border crimes, action against Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) in Bangladesh and denial and delay in taking over apprehended illegal Bangladeshi entrants by the BGB.

Issues related to border infrastructure, construction of a single-row fence (SRF), and air violations (including drone intrusions) may also be part of the talks from the Indian side, the sources said.

The BGB is expected to flag issues related to the alleged killing of its nationals by the BSF. The BSF has refuted this charge, saying its troops resort to a graded response of firing non-lethal ammunition followed by lethal ones in the face of a grave threat to its troops or Indian locals who are attacked by criminals.

After the August meeting in Dhaka last year, the two sides had “agreed” to take “effective steps” to continue to sensitise the border population to refrain from violating the international border, illegal crossing and intrusion, smuggling, human trafficking, uprooting border pillars and other trans-border crimes.

The DG-level border talks were held annually between 1975 and 1992, but they were made bi-annual in 1993, with either side alternatively travelling to the national capitals of New Delhi and Dhaka.

The BSF is designated as the lead security and intelligence-gathering agency for this front.