How two elections reshaped the India–Bangladesh border

Since Bangladesh's 2024 political transition, the India-Bangladesh border has become a site of so-called “push-ins,” where the Indian Border Security Force informally transfers people across the line without the verification and repatriation procedures both governments previously agreed to. Bangladesh Border Guard officials say more than 2,300 people were pushed across between May 2025 and late January 2026, over a hundred of whom later turned out to be Indian nationals themselves.

The practice spans Bangladesh's entire land border, from Rangpur in the north to Moulvibazar in the northeast, with Rajshahi absorbing the heaviest and most sustained pressure. One case, a 55-year-old man named Shreejib Kumar Singh who lost his fingers and could not hold a pen, was found on the Bangladesh side in Chapainawabganj and became the accused in a criminal case there, despite insisting he is an Indian citizen who was forced across the border.

BGB says it repeatedly asked its Indian counterpart, the BSF, to stop the unilateral pushes and use official channels instead, and says those requests were mostly ignored. Officials also say the pace of attempted push-ins nearly doubled after the BJP's win in West Bengal's assembly election this year.

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