Indian authorities are pushing residents, mainly Muslim ethnic Bengalis from West Bengal, into Bangladesh without any proper legal process by branding them alleged Bangladeshis, violating human rights, Human Rights Watch said. India must stop unlawfully expelling people, the rights group said. Many families have been stranded on the zero line of the two countries’ border because of the activities of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and attempts by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to block entry. Bangladeshi border guards said that since June 1, 2026 they had foiled at least 21 BSF attempts, in which more than 200 people, including children, were pushed towards Bangladesh. The details were given in a report published on Human Rights Watch’s website.
The report also said West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had said that under his “detect, delete and deport” policy hundreds of alleged “Bangladeshi infiltrators” had been detained and about 5,000 people “forced to return.” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Indian authorities were violating human rights by pushing families into Bangladesh or trapping them at the border. The government must stop unlawful expulsions and coordinate with Bangladeshi authorities to verify citizenship, she said.
The organisation said it had interviewed nine eyewitnesses. They saw Indian border guards bringing people to the border at night and pushing them into Bangladesh through gaps in the barbed-wire fencing, it said. In some cases, when Bangladeshi border guards did not allow entry, the Indian forces later took them back. In an incident in Bangladesh’s Panchagarh district on June 5, an attempt was made to push a group of about 10 people into Bangladesh. Local resident Rubel Hossain said they had come about 50 feet inside Bangladesh. Forces from both countries arrived and, after a long stand-off, the group went back. He also said they had been stranded for about 75 hours in the border “no man’s land” amid storms and rain before being taken back to the Indian side after negotiations.
In another incident, on June 6, an attempt was made to push a family of six into Bangladesh. Although Bangladeshi border guards blocked their entry, Indian forces did not allow them to be taken back, so the family spent the night under the open sky before being allowed to return to India. On June 8, 11 people were held on the zero line at the Thakurgaon border for about 48 hours before being taken back, Bangladeshi border authorities said.
Human Rights Watch also said that during an update of the voter list in West Bengal before the March election, about 9 million names were struck off, creating a risk of detention and expulsion. A similar contested citizenship-verification process had earlier put hundreds of thousands of people in Assam state at risk of statelessness. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said that illegal immigrants were taken close to the border and “pushed,” and that an environment had been created in which many were returning on their own.
Hasibur Islam, a local representative in Panchagarh, said a family from Siliguri who had Aadhaar cards were detained and sent to the border after their names were dropped from the voter list. They were allowed to return to India after being held for three days, he said. Indian authorities claim many Bangladeshis are living in India illegally and that they are being helped with voluntary repatriation. But rights groups say forced expulsion violates international human rights law. Bangladeshi authorities said they would not accept anyone without a legal process, and that repatriation must take place through verification and a bilateral agreement. Human Rights Watch said India must ensure protection of citizenship and human rights under international agreements, and that holding people at the border without food, water or medical care could amount to cruel and inhuman treatment.
The organisation warned that forcibly pushing children to the border violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ganguly said no one, whatever their nationality, should be forced to spend the night in an open field between two armed border forces.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report