India Allegedly Forcibly Pushing Bengali Muslims into Bangladesh, Leaving Families Stranded at Border
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Indian authorities of forcibly expelling ethnic Bengali residents—mostly Muslims—from border regions into Bangladesh without due legal procedures, triggering a growing humanitarian and diplomatic concern along the India–Bangladesh frontier.
According to HRW, individuals were reportedly moved by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) toward the Bangladesh border, where they were left in “no man’s land” between the two countries when Bangladesh’s Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) refused entry in several cases.
The report says that since June 1, more than 200 people, including children, have been involved in multiple attempted cross-border pushbacks, with Bangladeshi authorities preventing several incursions in districts such as Panchagarh and Thakurgaon.
Witness accounts cited by HRW describe families being left stranded at the “zero line”—the narrow buffer zone between the two countries—sometimes for hours or days, exposed to harsh weather conditions with limited access to food or shelter. In some cases, after standoffs between BSF and BGB forces, individuals were reportedly returned to the Indian side.
HRW said it had interviewed multiple witnesses who described nighttime movements of groups toward the border and attempts to push them through fencing gaps. The organization warned that such actions, if confirmed, could violate international human rights obligations, including protections against arbitrary expulsion and denial of due process.
Bangladesh border officials reportedly documented several attempted push-ins, while Indian authorities have previously maintained that many of those affected are undocumented migrants and that repatriation actions are part of enforcement against illegal immigration.
The report also references broader political developments in India, including voter list revisions and citizenship verification processes in some states, which critics say have disproportionately affected Bengali-speaking Muslim communities.
HRW urged both India and Bangladesh to strengthen established verification mechanisms for nationality determination and ensure that any repatriation follows formal legal procedures rather than informal or forceful border transfers.
The organization warned that leaving individuals stranded between armed border forces without access to basic necessities could amount to serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
