By H H Mohrmen
The murder of a high-ranking Bangladeshi politician inside the country’s borders is startling, but it also opens a can of worms that afflicts not only the borders but the state as a whole. This murder cannot be viewed in isolation; it sheds light on the rot present at the border, which is connected to other illegal activities throughout the state. The incident helps us see the larger picture, linking the border to various unlawful operations across Meghalaya.
Meghalaya shares a lengthy 443 km border with Bangladesh, and it is an open secret that this is a highly porous border. It is also an accepted fact that due to the challenging terrain, it is nearly impossible to monitor the border effectively. The porous nature of the border was further exposed by the recent murder of a high-profile Bangladeshi politician within Indian territory. That the murder happened despite the government imposing curfew in all the border villages raises more questions that need answers.
Manning the border: A balancing act for the BSF
Beyond the region’s difficult topography, the people living on both sides of the border share the same ethnic backgrounds and cultures. These cross-border communities regularly visit one another for occasions such as sickness, bereavements, weddings, and even church services, assemblies, and meetings. This shared culture adds to the difficulty of securing the border. It’s unrealistic to expect these communities to obtain passports and visas for such visits, so certain arrangements have been made to ease cross-border movement for social purposes, albeit unofficially.
Dawki, a border port, has been a legal route for exporting goods from India to Bangladesh since independence, but it’s also widely known that smuggling occurs on both sides. Despite both governments opening border haats to facilitate trade between the two countries, especially among people living along the border, illegal trade remains a source of livelihood for many on either side of the border.
Cattle smuggling and illegal trade at the border
Like international borders worldwide, this one has become a hub for smuggling. During Japan’s electronics boom, all the electronic goods in Meghalaya came from Bangladesh. Even second-hand or used clothes made their way into the state from Bangladesh. Today, people still refer to second-hand clothes as “Sula Bangla” or “clothes from Bangladesh.” It is only later that they are called second-hand clothes. Although the smuggling continues, the products have changed: puffed rice, biscuits, chips, fish, and even gram are now smuggled from Bangladesh to India. In return, items such as bidis, Indian-made foreign liquor, and sugar are smuggled from Meghalaya to Bangladesh.
In recent times, cattle and buffaloes have become the most sought-after goods, making cattle smuggling a lucrative business for people on both sides of the border. Local media frequently reports cases of smugglers paying herders ₹2,000 to guide cows across the border. Smugglers even compensate landowners whose property is used for the passage of these cattle. This relatively recent phenomenon of cattle smuggling on the India-Bangladesh border has grown into a thriving business.
It’s easy to point fingers at the border patrol forces when such incidents occur, but the question that needs answering is – Is guarding the border solely the responsibility of the BSF? As already mentioned, securing the border is a tightrope walk for the BSF on a daily basis.
Controlling smuggling: More than just the BSF’s responsibility
The responsibility for preventing smuggling doesn’t end with the BSF; other agencies must also ensure that illegal goods don’t reach the border. It requires coordinated efforts from all the forces in the state to curb illegal trade. Smuggled goods don’t simply appear at the border; they are transported from elsewhere. What are the state police and the transport department doing to prevent this? How do these goods reach the border undetected? And is the transport department effectively ensuring that only trucks carrying legal goods travel on the highways?
Has the Transport Department failed the State?
The Transport Department has weigh-bridges and checkpoints at several locations, particularly at the entry and exit points to the State, yet these government agencies have failed to stop trucks carrying illegal consignments. The press has reported that sugar was transported by trucks without being caught by the Police or Transport officials before reaching the border.
What about goods being transported into India? There have been reports of areca nuts (betel nuts) from Burma/Myanmar entering the state via Assam, and these trucks travel through many highways. Why haven’t these trucks been intercepted and their consignments confiscated by the Transport Department? How is it that, despite the large government machinery in operation, the trucks and illegal consignments reach the state undetected?
While the illegal transport of coal from Meghalaya continues, overloaded trucks carrying boulders and limestone on the state’s highways also go unchecked. These activities lead to significant revenue loss for the state exchequer and it cannot happen without the knowledge of those in the helm of power. The question is: who benefits from this illegality? In the last MDA regime, the blame was on the “high levels,” but today, there is no more “high level,” as everything is concentrated in one center of power within the government.
Murder at the border
The discovery of the body of Bangladeshi politician Ishaque Ali Panna more than 1 km inside Indian Territory is not surprising. Initially, the BSF denied that anyone could enter the country, especially with the border villages under night curfew. The BSF stated that the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya is fully secured and denied reports of illegal entry by Bangladeshi nationals. However, two or three days later, Panna’s body was found 1.2 or 1.3 kilometers inside Indian Territory in Dona village, East Jaiñtia Hills district. Panna, an ally of the deposed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had reportedly fled to Meghalaya to save his life after a mob burned down his home.
Many questions arise regarding the murder of the politician within the country’s territory. Why did he attempt to cross via Dona village? Those in the know are aware that the usual entry and exit points are elsewhere, as the terrain on this side of the border is difficult to traverse. Dona and other villages along the East Jaiñtia Hills border are more commonly used for cattle smuggling, not human crossing. Panna may have been given bad advice or even betrayed by those he trusted with his life. If his intention was to seek asylum in India, then Dona was not a safe route, as it’s not known for human crossings.
Initial reports, citing family sources, suggested that he died of a heart attack while climbing the steep terrain. But the pertinent question is: who informed the family about his death? This becomes more significant in light of reports that Panna carried a large sum of Indian rupees, which was not found when Indian forces recovered his body. The postmortem revealed that Panna had been strangled, confirming murder. The missing money may well be connected to his killing. The unfortunate incident left many questions unanswered, and the family may never get answers because the murder happened in the wrong place.
No man’s land, no man’s responsibility
The person or persons who planned this escapade did their research thoroughly and perhaps had already planned how it would end. They knew that because the murder happened inside Indian Territory, it would be difficult for Bangladesh law agencies to pursue the case, even if they were interested. Moreover, as Panna is now an enemy of the people and the state in Bangladesh, it’s doubtful whether the Bangladeshi government is keen on investigating his death. The interim government is busy reforming the important agencies of the government; therefore, it is no surprise that the case is shoved under the carpet.
On the other hand, even though the murder occurred in India, neither the government of Meghalaya nor the central government may be inclined to follow up on the case, given their already overwhelming backlog of unsolved crimes. Now that the deceased’s body has been handed over to the family, the case may simply fade away, buried alongside the deceased person’s body.
Smuggling and revenue loss
The murder reveals more than just border issues; it exposes the larger picture of smuggling and the transportation of illegal goods, which often goes undetected. The illegal transportation has obviously caused a leakage in government revenue collection. Now the question we need to ask is: Who benefits from the illegal transportation of goods? Who benefits from the illegal transportation of coal and overloaded dumper trucks carrying limestone along the national highways? Are people wrong to suspect wrongdoing when a senior politician in the ruling dispensation, who often identifies himself as a businessman rather than a political leader, is overseeing the function of the Department, and that too for the second consecutive term? Aren’t the above evidences enough to fuel speculation about the wrongdoing within the Transport Department? With all the illegal activities happening, are people wrong to guess that there is more going on in the Department than meets the eye?
How much more blatant wrongdoing will the MDA Government indulge in without any accountability. How much more will the state be looted of its resources by one or two political families?